I'm in the early stages of developing the outline for my next novel. It's based on a future where robots/automation have taken over virtually all jobs. I'm NOT going for a Matrix-type "the robots are intelligent" direction; it simply serves as a reason for why my world is the way it is. I want to have a setup where 99% of the society is destitute and dirt-broke, due to the collapse of the economic system, while the 1% that owns the robots are extremely wealthy and rule the society. In terms of the character-related aspects, I want to be able to create a scenario where a girl from the ruling class and a girl from the oppressed class run away together and flee to outside the parameters of the society. The ruling-class girl disguises herself as a regular proletariat (think Arya Stark when she first flees King's Landing, but these characters are older), and they're both on the run from separate emergencies. The ruling-class girl, despite belonging to the 1% that's perceived to have all the power with no problems, actually needs to escape from some creepy under-the-surface problem (haven't decided yet if this is personal, like family abuse, or something more large-scale related to the plot at large). A few issues i'm having trying to make this work logistically: 1) In such a world, where AI/robots took over all or virtually all jobs and the human workforce ceased to exist. how would such a wealth gap emerge? When I've researched this topic, there seems to be a lot pointing toward formation of a basic universal income, or the emergence of some new better-evolved market - where despite the eradication of jobs, humans would still all be better off in general, just the economy would become reshaped. I want to do something where the people who own the robots are as rich as the Waltons, where the rest of society has collapsed into a 3rd-world state with 10 people crammed into 1-room apartments, no access to healthcare, the streets are deadly dangerous, etc. How could this type of dichotomy happen in a way that's believable? i'm thinking the system will probably be somewhat new, because that would make the most sense for upheaval if the system we know it just recently collapsed. But I want to handle it so it's believable that, despite the advancement of the technology, the economy just worsens where the rich are richer and the poor are poorer by a huge degree. 2) How would the two main characters meet each other? I'm sure the rich people would be highly segregated, just like how rich people today aren't spending their time in meth-ridden trailer parks. At first I was thinking of some kind of propaganda PR appearance, but even then it would be heavily guarded and monitored with no chance to get away and meet someone freely. 3) What kind of huge secret/problem would the one from the rich caste be harboring? What might make her desperate to disguise herself as a poor person, fake her death and run away? I like the idea of there being some eerie conspiracy that plays a bigger role in the plot, but I don't want to do it in a way that's cliché...like "the whole setup was deliberate to wipe out most of humanity" or "they're all really aliens" or something. Thanks for the ideas!
Well to your third question. The rich would do pretty much do what they want. This would include things like using the poor as objects of whatever they fancied to do with them. You could have gladiatorial style games, where the poor are used in the arena. Evil twisted people keeping them as pets, or sex slaves. Or worse, but I will let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks. Have peasant hunts, as a popular sport. Just cause they are The Ruling class, doesn't change the fact that they see the poor as vermin to be stepped on. They would just get creative with the vast amount of power they can exert on the masses with impunity. To the second. As for the rich girl getting out, would it be too far fetched to simply have her go to the bathroom at a PR function and then ghost out from there, having smuggled her disguise on her person in some fashion? Think of it as layering, disguise under her normal clothes. I think they would meet somewhere in the middle of their journey out of town, or somewhere near the outskirts. This is assuming The majority of people in you world live in the city, so as not to be too far apart in terms of spacial relation of the two communities. Or the poor girl finds the other girl along the way, hiding out somewhere either in her general block or on the road out of town. Really tough to pull this one off as it will always feel a bit like a plot demand, but it is doable. Play around with some situations where you think the two girls would meet, that makes the most sense to you. For the first. Simply do the antithesis of what the experts say it would be like. The economy collapsed, robots replace humans in the job market and there is no plan of getting a wage to the people. Use your robotic workforce to create products to export to other countries for the 1%s income (robots work for free and don't try to commit suicide or need a lot of up keep or wages). This would pave the way for what little money was left to be soaked up from the destitute people below them. Leaving the 99% of people to pretty much work on reforming something resembling society. Though from the way you talk about it, they need to basically no infrastructure (water, power), or extremely scarce for your 3rd world free for all to work. Which means these things would have to be either neglected severely due to the collapse, or the 1% has them destroyed there by cutting the people off of those amenities at some point during or just after the turmoil. Or even dismantled for other things the 1% deems more fitting than to be wasted on the 99%. (Think spare parts for their community, so they don't have to manufacture as much to replace things when they break down.) Also have a massive Mercenary or Private Contractor style military force, that will do anything for a buck as protection from the people who try to descent. And poof, one horrific dystopia with some plausible elements. At least I hope this is helpful to you, or points you in the right direction. Who is to say that this couldn't happen at some point in our own future? (Not likely, but a slim chance it could.) Anywho, good luck with this and all the best. Have fun oppressing your people.
Thank you so much for your amazing, helpful response! I appreciate how much depth you went into and really like your ideas. But for the "horrible secret the rich girl is escaping" thing, I was actually specifically trying to think of something that the rich girl would be in danger of. Not something they would do to the poor class (I'm not looking to write a second-rate Hunger Games, or something too similar to a certain Black Mirror episode), but something where the rich girl is facing a nasty fate herself. Why would she want to hide in the poor caste's lands and then flee the region altogether?
My apologies for missing this point, it was a late night. That is complicated. It could be something to hurt her or a plot of some sort, from old family rivalries at the top. Even in high societies there is still a low man on the totem pole, or those that want more for themselves by eliminating competition. For them it is all about wealth and status. For a rivalry or just flat out jealous household would plot to ruin the other family by increasingly more and more devious ways, up to kidnappings and assassinations to remove those they are in strife with. Even on the surface of whatever devious is going on will be much more subtle up to a point. Or there is an dark underground in their community, where there is still the risk of falling prey to being abducted and used for someones own purposes other than trying to bring down the family. Could be some twisted couple/man/woman wants a child to raise, but don't have any on their own. The other alternatives are pretty dark, as to what they would want a child for. Or an internal family problem where a jealous relative sees her as a threat to as they would lose to gain their brother/sisters fortune, because the girl is the one who will inherit their wealth after her parents die. This could also be turned into having the jealous relative planning to kill all of them, so they don't have to wait to inherit their wealth and status. Feuding in high society is a pretty common occurrence in high societies, and usually is played like a game of Chess in a covert/semi-covert fashion. Though you can drop some of the subtly by having more open brazen attacks. Greed can drive those to want more power and more wealth, no matter the costs. If you prefer, you could have a psychopath who simply doesn't play by the agreed upon rules/laws and uses their own personal guard to help aid them in acquire their victims for whatever they have in mind for them. Just because they have vast power already, does not mean that their will not be a few that will simply want to exert more power, as they have the means and resources to be able to run amok in the community while still remaining relatively out of the eyes of suspicion. This would be something that they would find extremely exciting to these types at this level. From having their prey picked up virtually unnoticed, and on down to whatever they plan to do to them. Power over the powerful, if you will. Discovering something that someone would rather not be brought into the light, is reason enough to put her in a life or death situation. Keeping up appearances would be enough motivation to kill anyone that knows, or is suspected of knowing. I hope this is a better answer, than my original one to this question.
That's the problem. Robots doing manufacturing, etc., are utterly useless without a population to buy the manufactured products. And the population can't buy the products if they're desperately poor. It sounds like the core concept of your story is rich versus poor, so is it mandatory that you find a way for the robots to cause the rich versus poor?
at the core of this I would say you can only oppress people so far... Blue Gold World Water Wars --- see clip on the Bolivian water wars, where water rights were privatized, and the cost begins to outstrip the population's ability to pay for a basic necessity to life itself. starts @ 1h : 04m in. the rest of the video is areal eye opener too, in how power structures move the pieces around to acquire advantages over the general population... I would imagine, at the top it is much more cannibalistic, simply based on an observation of how markets move, in mergers, and the dissolution of companies as those buying consolidate wealth. a good insight into this is Jack London's -- The Sea Wolf .... Larsen challenges Humphrey's artificial world view with an elemental philosophy of survival of the fittest: "What do you believe, then?" I countered. "I believe that life is a mess," he answered promptly. "It is like yeast, a ferment, a thing that moves and may move for a minute, an hour, a year, or a hundred years, but that in the end will cease to move. The big eat the little that they may continue to move, the strong eat the weak that they may retain their strength. The lucky eat the most and move the longest, that is all. What do you make of those things?" http://brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/232
@TheNineMagi - Thanks for that video! It's very informative. @Cave Troll - I like the thoughts on how the rival rich families could be a factor, that's some great food for thought. @ChickenFreak - The other members of the wealthy class are the ones buying the products/services. Due to their ablity to pay massive prices, the poor people's demand isn't necessary. Like what happens in certain cities' housing markets.
Getting rich through automation is a high-volume situation. And the rich don't get rich from the rich--they get rich from the larger population. The automation isn't making sense to me.
this is probably one of the better articles, I have come across in regards to jobs v. automation http://projourno.org/2013/02/return-of-the-luddites-the-changing-nature-of-work/ It tends to lean toward higher education being of importance in escaping a fate of unemployment, it still fails to recognize the actual advancements being made in the machine consciousness, and cognition. Recent events also point to a much larger field being narrowed down. Even the arts, and agriculture are no longer safe from encroachment and job replacement by machines. to ChickenFreak 's point I would read Buckminster's chapter on the Origins of Specialization: To illustrate the correlation between over-specialization and extinction, Fuller cites the case of a marine bird, which evolved longer and longer beaks to dig in marine marshes for its food, until eventually the beaks of this species were so long and heavy that the birds could no longer fly. Massive fires swept through the area and this species of over specialized birds, unable to fly, was trapped and perished. Studies of biological species, and of human tribes that became extinct, find evidence for the same cause of extinction in both cases: over-specialization (1969, p. 41). http://collaborative-intelligence.org/RBFuller.html Automation and integration reduces the amount of human labor needed, I have seen systems implemented easily reducing a workforce by 80%. While great for the bottom line it is highly disruptive to local economies. Safety net are designed for a low percentage of a population needing financial assistance. Current conditions are already pointing to these safety net being stressed beyond capacity. Our global economy is highly dependent on the suppression of wages in regional areas producing goods and especially true for raw goods and commodities. First world countries are consumer based, absorbing this production. Kill the ability to consume these goods and no amount of automation is going to be saving the world from the ensuing aftermath. The masses will revolt, french revolution style, this is what the upper echelons fear, and try to balance against. The impunity we are seeing today is due to successes in automated warfare systems being tested, and the sense of security it provides those at the top. Their perception of the situation is based on an acceptable loss ratio equivalent to the genocide of regional populations. It's the extermination of people who no longer provide any added value to the supply chain. The ultimate undoing however is the lack of knowledge or know how in the maintenance of the various systems sustaining the joi de vivre society. A concept H.G. Wells explored beautifully in the time machine, in hiding the counterbalance needed to achieve the perception of a Utopian society.