The fact of the matter is that new technologies disrupt archaic infrastructure. There's a certain level of irony whenever someone complains on Facebook via their smartphone about solar energy destroying the coal mining industry. What about the switchboard operators whose jobs are now nonexistent thanks to the phones they keep snug in their pockets? How about the elevator operators or lamp lighters? Should we, too, band together in protest over the fact that these jobs no longer exist?

The short answer: hell no!

The longer answer: none of us would protest, to begin with, because of the fact that the technologies we use today that disrupted these now-extinct industries have made our lives better. Can you even think of a world without smartphones, let alone electricity? I know I can't. And even if we attempted to replace these technologies for human labor, the end-product will likely only annoy us.

South Park hit on this quite effectively when Randy schemed up a plan to deal with the rowdy protesters by replacing all of the Alexas and Google Homes for those who believe their jobs were taken away. The result: a redneck-tuned human assistant that, at best, provided humorous answers to queries at a pace that only humans could muster. Needless to say, when put into action, the rednecks quickly realized just how terrible of a job it really is for humans.

The good news is, at least for the time being, automation has yet to reach the point where human-based labor in the workforce is no longer needed. Where new technologies arise, new jobs will be created for people to acquire income from. And so, progress resumes.

Eventually, however, as AI continues advancing at an exponential rate, the pace of change - and, indeed, the pace of labor - will be so significant that we humans will simply be unable to keep up. With that, both concepts of work and income could potentially be abolished altogether - a post-scarcity, post-capitalist future of abundance.

Getting from here to there will be tricky and, guaranteed, we'll see a lot more people protesting the technological disruption of industries we've become accustomed to over the years. Though, as a new report that was recently published has shown, at least when it comes to the United States, the answer to all of our troubles could very well be a Universal Basic Income.

As we continue moving towards a future where currency no longer exists and most labor is conducted via intelligent systems, a UBI could very well serve as our transitional safety net. Yes, anti-technology fanaticism might very well remain for the foreseeable future, but their arguments will only become moot the second they cash in their monthly UBI checks.

What do you think?