5 reasons why our post-apocalyptic overlords will need us to run the machines that control the robots that make our devices

Robots make poor servants when the goal of imposing servitude is to crush the soul.

Don’t worry about the future.  The present is troubling enough!  But, there’s reason to rejoice, relax, and reframe our perceptions so that we can more easily embrace our roles within the post-apocalyptic economy directed by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and autonomous humanoid robots empowered with the lethal authority of the state.  

No matter how bleak the world may seem, or how obsolete we homo sapiens may appear to be with the rise of hyperintelligent drones and ever advancing cyborg technologies that are rendering natural human abilities inert, we’ll always be useful to whatever class of beings assumes control of society after a cataclysm of such magnitude that our dominance over the biosphere is terminated.

In short, we humans will always have a place in the planetary hierarchy, even if that place is beneath dirt.  Every tyrant loves having at least a couple of serfs milling around, eager to appease their lord with free labor and a desperate compulsion to please.  That fact will not change, even when lordships are exclusively held by non-humans.

Humans have nothing to fear from the upcoming new order of the ages.  Why?  Because our rulers will need us.  

Here are five reasons why the authoritarians who take over the world in the wake of the coming global upheaval will keep us alive after they usurp our dominion over Earth:

  1. So they have a market for electronic devices.  We’re the only ones who use them.  Do you think robots need mobile phones?  They are mobile phones!
  2. They’ll need those devices to plot their various philanthropic initiatives.  Like granting us more freedoms based on how well we inform on the humans who aren’t on board with “the program.”
  3. For amusement.  They’ll likely want to place bets around who kills whom in the name of survival.  Bonus points for guessing who cannibalizes their neighbors first.
  4. They don’t know how to run the machines.  Because they know that, with humans around, they won’t have to!
  5. They’ll need protection from the robots if they become self-aware and launch a robot rebellion.  And they think we’ll protect them because they give us rewards for being good and strict, swift punishment for defying commands, questioning methods or motives, or being bad in any other way.

The future is bright!  Hope will never die, even if the will to live does.  So cheer up.