Optimus Primed: The Coming Roboconomy
Optimus Primed: The Coming Roboconomy
Hey everyone,
Last week, Tesla’s Optimus robot turned one year old.
Folks are still sleeping on Optimus, but that could change quickly.
Let’s take a closer look at the revolutionary technology that will transform everything we know about work, the global economy, and our purpose on this planet.
Optimus Primed
A year ago at Tesla's AI Day, Elon introduced the Tesla Bot to the world.
Also known as Optimus, it will run on the same AI system that powers Tesla's full-self-driving vehicles.
At the event, we learned that Optimus will have the ability to do "anything that humans don’t want to do."
Tesla is expected to unveil a working prototype of Optimus at its upcoming AI Day Part II on September 30th.
Production is expected to begin in 2023.
At Tesla's shareholder meeting earlier this month, Elon predicted that Optimus would become "more valuable than the cars."
This statement caught a lot of people by surprise.
Tesla has spent nearly two decades scaling up auto production, but suddenly its biggest product is going to be a robot that doesn't exist yet?
The reason is that Optimus will change everything we know about the economy.
Age of Abundance
When most people think of "the economy," they think money.
Over the last year, Elon has repeatedly emphasized his own counterintuitive definition of economy: the goods and services people provide for each other.
Optimus will change the world because it's designed to elevate this goods-and-services version of the economy to previously unimaginable heights.
Optimus will allow humanity to expand its labor force exponentially.
Given that a robot is essentially a computer in a humanoid shell, and there are billions of computers on earth, there's no reason why every person on Earth shouldn't be able to have their own robot laborer.
As Optimus scales, the economic incentives to adopt robot workers will be immense.
After the initial investment, companies will have a fleet of automated laborers capable of working at any time of day, for zero wages, connected to an AI-powered training network
Some view the emergence of robot labor as a cause for concern.
What will humans do with their lives when menial work is outsourced to robots?
Will companies use robot labor as leverage to further diminish working conditions for people?
These are reasonable objections, but doomsday scenarios are unlikely.
It's worth considering the opposite outcome: robot laborers could lead to radical improvements in living standards for people everywhere.
In a recent article for China Cyberspace, Elon wrote, "with the power of robots, we will create an era of extreme abundance of goods and services, where everyone can live a life of abundance."
He went on to explain, "the vision is for them to serve millions of households, such as cooking, mowing lawns, and caring for the elderly...In the future, a home robot may be cheaper than a car. Perhaps in less than a decade, people will be able to buy a robot for their parents as a birthday gift."
Any small business that raises enough capital to buy a robot will be able to use it to provide goods and services for others.
Individuals who own robots should be able to, at minimum, double their economic output.
When Optimus is combined with technology like Tesla's solar and battery rigs, which allow people to become their own power plant and sell electricity back to the state, every household will have the potential to become its own self-sufficient economic unit with a full-time labor force.
Folks will still be able to do manual labor if they want to, but it will become a choice, rather than a necessity.
Those who choose to outsource labor to robots will be freed up to do the tasks that can't be performed by robots, like making art, raising children, managing businesses, building communities, and other civic pursuits.
As long as Optimus ownership is evenly distributed, it has the potential to empower regular people to design a radically better world from the ground up and elevate living standards across the globe.
UBI for the roboconomy
The advent of AI-powered robot labor will reform the existing economy to the point where it becomes unrecognizable from our present perspective.
The changes could be so dramatic that we'd all benefit from a new financial system that's tailor-made for the robot economy.
Elites know these changes are on the horizon. Hilariously, Bill Gates has called for taxing robots so government can take a cut of the economic activity generated by machines, effectively preserving the existing balance of power between the state and individual.
Elon has proposed an alternate scheme, where humans receive Universal Basic Income from the state to offset the loss of jobs due to automation.
Many folks balk at the idea of UBI, worrying that it will incentivize laziness and make people too dependent on the government.
Rightfully, they also wonder where the money will come from.
There are good answers for these concerns.
First, it's important to recognize that most people will happily work if the cause is meaningful, their efforts are fairly rewarded, and they are treated with dignity.
Our current economic order is brutally punishing, especially for young people starting at the bottom of the ladder.
Millions are trapped in repetitive jobs working for giant corporations that aren't interested in tapping into their best qualities, just to pay back loans they probably shouldn't've been given in the first place.
Lately, this set of circumstances has led to the viral phenomenon of Quiet Quitting, where workers stay in an unfulfilling job but silently resolve to put forth a bare minimum of effort. Quiet quitting is the other side of the coin of The Great Resignation.
Contrary to the belief that UBI will breed a workforce of idlers, it's worth considering how providing enough money for food and housing could free people up to take more risks like starting a small business, allowing them to add unique value to the economy instead of punching a clock for a conglomerate.
The question of how to pay for UBI is a tricky one.
It's possible that governments could streamline their safety-net spending into UBI and actually save money by eliminating bureaucratic waste. However, generating the political will to do so would be a tall task.
A more forward-looking idea is to fund UBI by mining and distributing crypto.
Proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Bitcoin allow governments to monetize dormant energy resources by converting electricity into digital cash.
The idea may sound far-fetched now, but the wheels are already in motion.
Earlier this year, Fort Worth became the first US city to mine Bitcoin. Jackson, TN is exploring the same possibility, while governments in Missouri and Miami have explored ways to put crypto directly in the hands of citizens.
Crypto-UBI is appealing because it wouldn't necessarily require governments to print money or increase taxes. Ideally, government-run crypto mining would pay for itself and accelerate renewable energy infrastructure.
It could also restore a more natural relationship of governments using natural resources to improve the lives of constituents, rather than looking for ways to siphon off value from productive individuals.
Both robots and crypto are sovereign technologies designed to increase the freedom of the individual.
Together, they could usher in a world of unprecedented abundance.
The only question now is: will the Optimus economy will run on Bitcoin?
Or Dogecoin?
Dogey Treats: News Bites
Elon subpoenaed Jack Dorsey in his case against Twitter. A judge ordered Twitter to hand over documents relating to the person responsible for counting bots.
The Doge-Ethereum bridge is expected to launch later this year, according to a a new post. The bridge will work similar to the one that allows for Wrapped Bitcoin, and its Ethereum token will be called wDoge. It also involves a DAO whose members include BluePepper, BitGo, MyDoge, and The Dogecoin Foundation.
SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites, pushing the total number of orbital satellites past 3000. Elon tweeted that his companies' two main goals this year were to get Starship into orbit and achieve wide release of FSD.
Elon tweeted in jest that he was buying Manchester United and posted a spicy meme about CERN that called it "a demonic technology unlike anything the world has ever seen." He also posted a meme about Schrödinger's cat.
Russia proposed a new international standard for precious metals trading to circumvent price suppression by the London Bullion Market Association. What's next for BRICS nations in their battle against western financial hegemony?
The Houston Texans are the first NFL team to accept Bitcoin for select ticket payments.
What role did Bill Gates play in the successful passing of the Inflation Reduction Act?
Meme stock $BBBY ripped higher before falling after GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen sold his entire stake in the company. Ken Griffin's Citadel borrowed $600 million to prepare for volatility. AMC's preferred stock $APE began trading on Monday and was repeatedly halted due to volatility.
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