Just own the damn robots
Why not just seize the means of production? Private (real) property is ultimately rooted in the theft of the commons. This has historically been justified using two assertions: that people don&#x27;t value what they don&#x27;t own, and that nobody does anything except for profit. Both are highly questionable, yet when counterexamples are offered they are generally dismissed as &#x27;the exception that proves the rule&#x27; or some equally irrational rhetoric.<p>Our existing economic paradigms are demonstrably flawed. Just as feudalism tried to restrain the creative forces of capitalism but eventually collapsed, capitalism is arguably restraining the creative forces of (socialism, participativism, something we haven&#x27;t got a good name for yet). We are familiar with many of the potential pitfalls - excessive bureaucracy and various flavors of authoritarianism - but have yet to fully systematize the desirable alternatives of open source culture. Perhaps what is needed is a general theory of economic networking that incorporates lateral as well as hierarchical structures.