The most important reason for optimism about the coming social transitions is that growing material abundance will lower the incentives for violence. When people don’t have the necessities of life, or when crime is already high, citizens can feel that they have nothing to lose by violence. But the same technologies that will cause these social disruptions will also be making food, housing, transportation, and health care much cheaper. And crime will likely keep falling through a combination of better education, smarter policing, and a reduction in environmental toxins like lead that damage
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Like most white liberals, Kurzweil lives in a self-imposed bubble. One meeting with a Muslim would set him straight.
