the impact of nano-tech on employment will largely be a function of societies ability to adjust and the rate of impact rather than the absolute impact. in 1900 over 85% of the US economy was agriculture based. today it is less than 4% of GDP. Hey guess what 81% of those people mostly have jobs. They do more creative higher value add stuff. Expect the same. Luddites are fun but a little slow on the uptake and painfully boring at parties, so I wouldn't worry we will all have things to do eventually, even if it is only finding new ways to amuse and entertain ourselves.

(not criticism)

Unless I read them online or at a library, there's
no way I could afford all those books. I'll
look, but I doubt I'll be touting about with a
Sitchin 'watchtower' pamphlets trying to fetch
faith.

You know, from what you just said, that sounds
a lot like that movie or series "Stargate".

But isn't it a paradox to have records of
something before language/record was invented?
How about this: if these people were ruling the
earth, and were 'intelligent' enough to create us,
then why would they, as our Gov't doesn't, allow
us to know that they were here (from somewhere else)? I see no perterbation of timelines that
could result in an non-ignorant-to-the-fact
society that both benefits from education, but
is then enslaved for no apparent reason. And
what of the animals?; Did they wait all those
millions of years? And why do we look like them?
Did they engineer us to look like them, or change
their appearances to mingle as gods among us?

As a side note, you must remember that most
monotheistic people who are educated are also
beginning to believe in the God we speak of as
"The Creator of The Universe" (or multiverse),
and thereby might not be so crazed or
crestfallen. The fact that perhaps we were
created by another race of 'humans' only proves
that they would so boldly create in the manner
of their Creator (as indirectly as you can view
that, such as orchestrating the initial explosion-
not forming balls of dust with 'bare hands' ;] ).

This isn't criticism, as the critic in me would
have said much different things- so read on.

Have you read the "Rama" series, by
Sir Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee?
You should, because they have a good explanation
of things, in their own way. The only complaint
I have about the books (4) are that they hint
that females are in some sense superior, when
we are supposed to believe that they are equal.

Also, for my immediate information, will 'they'
destroy us after we become as they 'are' with
nano and perhaps fempto/temporal technology?
Or perhaps 'harvest' us?

I still don't understand why all 'aliens' modern
WRITERS cook up are always manevolent or evil.

I once heard of a couple of students who killed
themselves because their D&D character was
murdered. But I'm sure you have plenty of ammo
for that one, so don't bother.

In the interest of staying on topic, I should
say some more about nanotech advances.
I think that since there eventually will be
some technology resembling that one in
"The Matrix" where you grow certain pathways
in your brain which resemble learning, that
you could rapidly spread this idea of yours,
and others, such as the scientologist
perspective, or the atheist perspective, along
with a "unified field theory" or whatever best
is available at the time, and THEY could make
their own choice, depending on their intelligence
factor, but that, too, perhaps could be brought
without bias up to speed.

That is, if the Nefilim don't get to us first!

(please take this post as a friendly tone)

"End of line." – Tron

Yes, Nanotech is going to change the world as we know it – and it won't be in the way that anyone expects, either.

Also, yes, I do have 'beliefs' but not in a 'God'. 300,000 years ago, mankind was created by an alien race called the Anunnaki (in the bible, they are called the Nefilim) – and these 'aliens', who look just like us, posed as gods. The very structure of people's beliefs today, was created by none other than the Anunnaki themselves. We were not created to be equals, and thus, a belief in a higher power was MANDATORY in order to keep mankind in the enslavement they were originally intended for.

Now don't misunderstand me – I never did say that there isn't a 'Creative Source' in the universe (because obviously someone had to create the Anunnaki, right?) But the 'God' that people all around the world worship today does not exist, except in people's delusional minds.

For more information on the Anunnaki, and mankind's origins, please read these books by Zecharia Sitchin:

The 12th Planet
The Wars of Gods and Men
The Lost Realms
Genesis Revisited

Unlike people who are forced to believe with FAITH, Sitchin shows PROOF of how and why we were created. Do you honestly believe that our mathematics and science originally came from a human being who just decided one day to make up some quantum equation? Do you honestly believe that humans were capable of creating the Pyramids of Giza, and the Pyramids in the Americas?? That's impossible – it would take humans another several thousand years to evolve to the point where we could CREATE something like mathematics. We simply LEARNED mathematics and science from the Anunnaki – the first 'humans' who were granted this were the Sumerians in Mesopotamia; and after the demise of the Sumerians through a Nuclear dust cloud (which was caused by the 'gods' fighting amongst themselves), the knowledge was passed on to priests, who basically kept the knowledge to themselves, thinking that they were protecting it.

The stupid United States government, as well as many others, also know of the existence of the Anunnaki – but if this knowledge were to be made public, there would be complete social unrest all over the place; people would be committing suicide, just because the 'God' that they have believed in for so long, was actually a phony.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. All I can say is, please do not critisize me until you have read Sitchin's books. I guarantee once you read them, you'll be literally saying, "Holy Shit!".

I agree that the money system will be destroyed,
or at least, replaced by a system (for those
who wish to "work") of barter for time, until
human services can be streamlined and replicated.

I also agree that NOBODY is fully prepared to
predict the actual outcome of nanotechnological
developement, but assuming precautions of
education and regulation are taken,
it's safe to say all changes will be GOOD ones.

However, do you have a system of beliefs?
If not, if you're an atheist or a determinist,
YOUR LIFE IS POINTLESS. People need to have
purpose, and not just of being part of a
community- that is quite superficial. Knowing
that a Divine Creator cares for you is a very
wonderful thing for most people. And aside
from hypocricy and rebuke from popular culture,
and although the popular definition of "religion"
is wrong, in that religion is a system of beliefs
and traditions _OR_ a RELATIONSHIP with a God,
these ideals should NEVER be extinguished, along
with "free will", because ideals and faith are
part of human NEED, even to our basic biology
proven in science magazines across the
country a few months ago.

I guess Im saying that whether they get paid or not, most people will probably find something constructive to do with their time to give life meaning.

They may also find something unconstructive to do with their time (especially if AI does the majority of the constructive stuff better than they can).

In addition, with enough processing power (anyone for converting the North American coal fields, the atmosphere of Venus and the Asteroid Ceres into computer elements?) some could create virtual universes in cyberspace and others explore them. Or, if biostasis is perfected, the bored could 'drop out' for a few centuries until things got interesting again, or take a relativistic trip around the spiral arm or near a large black hole for really major jumps forward in time.

Ian Bank's Culture novels also deal with a civilization in which material wealth has no meaning. People mostly play or travel. There are jobs of a sort, but they seem to be more avocations performed out of a sense of duty to the society as a whole or because the person gets a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment for being widely acknowledged for being good at it. Bank's newest 'Look to Windard' probably does the best job of showing such of society.

A good point talking about the sheer number of people who could be effected by nanotech. As for what they could do. I suspect a huge amount of available leisure time would probably lead to whole new industries in the service and hotel/restuarant fields. Remember, the vast majority of the human race doesnt currently have the option of even going on something like a leisure cruise or resort vacation. Given the option some number will want to and its possible that 'real human service' rather than automation might be considered desirable. Also think in terms chefs, designers, artists and other 'creative' businesses, that might see both an explosion in demand from a wealthy populace, but also an explosion in numbers from folks now having the time to indulge in what they want to do, not what they have to do. Also think in terms of new jobs and challenges that might become available from the new technologies. Just to throw out some ideas for the fun of it: Terraformer, Species/Ecosystem Restoration technician, Artifical Intelligence Personality Designer, Interstellar Exploration Project Coordinator, Artificial Life and Ecosystem design, Landscape architecture for space habitats, etc, etc. Finally, there are jobs such as teacher, actor, lawyer, etc. that while they could potentially be entirely replace by AI will probably remain a mostly human or human-plus-AI endeavor for quite a while to come. I guess Im saying that whether they get paid or not, most people will probably find something constructive to do with their time to give life meaning.

You really need to lay off the rhetoric a little. Unless you are using it simply for the sake of humor (as I do), it makes it very hard for anyone to take you seriously.

And lay off this destroying humanity rubbish. In case you haven't noticed, you're a member of the human race.

I'm sure the square dancers would think they are professionals.

Perhaps there would be room for professional luddities as well. What about luddite square dancers?