What happens to the Third World when the First World no longer needs it?

Some thoughts based on very few data points

::::3D printing is getting very convenient::::

Observation: At my workplace, we've been printing our own parts since Covid due to the supply shortages, and we have not switched back. My SO's group is experimenting with printing their own drug capsules.

Prediction: We're steadily weaning ourselves off from large companies who are fronts for sweatshops in the third world.

::::Local/Used/Recycle Ads are getting better than Amazon::::

Observation: Amazon's sole advantage is that it ships stuff fast, but the quality of what you find and price of the stuff that you find isn't that much cheaper than buying stuff second hand from a site such as Ebay, where you typically filter by location. My SO who favours more higher quality products, goes for Etsy, which is only a little more expensive than Amazon and has more locally sourced stuff.

Prediction: Ordering household products from the third world will begin to only make sense for suppliers who buy in bulk (e.g. Alibaba), with everyone else relying on local networks.

::::AI is getting very good::::

Observation: With Imagen and DALL-E producing some truly fantastic results for text-to-image generation, and Chatbots such as LaMDA being touted as "truly sentient"[1], the need for call centre operators or other outsourced customer support diminishes.

Prediction: Call centres and other jobs that made the third world rich via computers will dry up.

::::Food wars means more emphasis on local produce::::

Observation: The instability in food networks caused by the ongoing Ukraine conflict has meant higher food prices, which has driven me and my SO towards growing our own indoor veg and buying from farmers markets.

Prediction: Third world farming might begin to diminish until its only used to feed cattle, with fruit and veg for consumers coming from more local sources

::::Meat is becoming less important::::

Observation: in the first world, there is a steadily increasing trend towards going meat-free (vegetarian, vegan, etc). The soy and other produce used to clear large tracts of land in the third world goes largely towards feeding cattle.

Prediction: As meat demand wavers, so will the need for extensive farming. That means less farmers in the third world.

::::Energy is becoming more decentralized::::

Observation: Solar panels are getting cheaper and more efficient every year, and with the roll out of EVs that can power a house for a week on a single engine, who even needs the grid? Plus with the instability of gas due to conflicts, it makes more sense for big investors to invest in something stable such as wind and solar.

Prediction: Countries will begin to rely less on each other for energy.

Discussion

Well, what happens to the third world when the first world no longer needs to exploit it?

Will [mb]illions of people die due to lack of jobs?

Will governments step in and establish brutal but efficient regimes to empower their people like Cuba did?

I guess what I'm really asking is:

Will the rich in the first world allow the poor in the third world to exist, if they have nothing that they want from one another?

Ref1: LaMDA transcript

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Replies

~skedaddle3644 wrote (thread):

I wonder if we will be ever rid of a “third world”, the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that there will always be a minority of things. Of course, as things get better over time, definitions will change.

The 20% can be broken down even further too, 20% of the top 20% and so on… This works in nature too, 80% of the planets rotate around 20% of the stars, 80% of software glitches are caused by 20% of bugs, 80% of sleep quality occurs in 20% of sleep…

So, maybe we will never be rid of the Third World, there is likely always going to be someone better off than someone else, I'm optimistic things won't be as bad as some worry about.

~tatterdemalion wrote (thread):

What will the bourgeoisie in the imperial core (first world) do with the proletariat of the imperial core when they no longer need them?

Exterminism

~dakota wrote (thread):

I think decentralized energy is farther off in the future; hopefully countries will build out more nuclear and shut down fossil plants sooner, but that depends on having access to uranium and a state capable of enriching it (plus proliferation concerns). I guess we're all hoping for "energy independence" that relies on clean sources, but disagree on whether nuclear is appropriate.

~ns wrote (thread):

There's a techno-optimistic angle of this: the same technology that reduces the reliance on poorer countries can also be used to help the people in those poorer countries. After all, we're all human and with the same basic requirements. Call it trickle-down techonomics, but it has an effect nonetheless. The problem is getting poorer and developing countries access to these new technologies, but access is better problem to have than the technology not existing in the first place.

Historically, the question of "but what will the people do without jobs?" has always been asked when some new, revolutionary technology appears. So far, that question has always been answered by new jobs appearing elsewhere. If you were to tell someone living in the US from the early 1800s that technology would improve so much that over 90% of the population would be out of a job (>90% of the labor force was farmers, compared to 1.3% today) they'd be panicked. But of course, we know that it has instead opened the opportunity for people to work in other sectors that can dramatically improve our lives in other ways.

The real question is whether we can set aside greed enough to empower people to live good lives in a post-labor world. Universal basic income is practically a requirement, in that regard.