Philosophy Now Forum

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Karōshi (過労死?), which can be translated literally as "death from overwork" in Japanese, is occupational sudden death.

The major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress and a starvation diet.




As technology vaporizes good paying jobs and individuals are left with less and less the rise of the philosophy of Karoshi is openly acknowledged in the country of Japan and will continue to grow throughout EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD.


God help us as we become more like ants & bees.





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AI guided systems continuing to take over even the clerical and technical professional jobs (not just the manual and skilled labor of past industrial phases), would seem to equate to less work-related stress due to multitudes being unemployed. "Starvation [minus intentional diet]" then being the more applicable aspect, along with homelessness of record proportions. One solution is a former human worker purchasing a machine used by a company, receiving part of its profits, but being responsible for all maintenance and upkeep of the machine. Of course, this strategy naively assumes that the machines won't eventually be able to accomplish that for themselves. Especially since they already would have been sophisticated and intellectively adept enough to replace the highly educated / trained echelon of people. A company owner among the 1% of the population still well-fed, groomed, and housed could reach a point where s/he has to ask: "What happened to all the consumers who once bought our products and services?"

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Actually you just described a subject that is very close to my heart - 3D printing.


Where we become less of a consumer and more of a prosumer.



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Read Cory Doctorow's novel, The Makers, to understand why this is probably a pipe dream.