Slavery is unethical. It is a terrible mistake of humanity, an example of the dark side of man.
Or at least that’s what our mindset of the Industrial Age tells us.
But in the Agricultural Age, slavery was a perfectly acceptable institution. It was an economical need. The surplus of manpower could not ask for more than subsistence.
Slaves were a significant part of the population in all ancient empires: Babylon, China, Egypt, Rome. When it is not pure slavery, it is exploitation of the peasants, the “serf” of the Middle-Ages.
In the Agricultural Age, slavery is a real, useful institution. And nobody finds anything to say against it!
Suddenly at the onset of the Industrial Revolution, this institution suddenly becomes inappropriate. It gets forbidden by the European powers. Is it because suddenly they realize that it is unethical? No, it is just that slavery is not needed any more in the Industrial Age production system. Workers need to be literate and educated. They need to earn money to become consumers.
Only after will people find higher order justifications on the moral level and try to impose it to the rest of the world.
We are now at the onset of a new Revolution. The value production system will change drastically.
Which of our current institutions will become inappropriate and unethical in the Collaborative Age?
