We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Wookiees and Mon Calamari are enslaved by the Empire, but given the Empire's formidable military-industrial infrastructure, the omnipresence of droids, and the latter species' unusual physiology, alien slavery in the Empire makes little practical sense. (Droid slavery, on the other hand...) It seems slavery in the Star Wars verse is largely a policy intended to [[For the Evulz|humiliate and degrade acceptable targets]], when it isn't a cover for genocide (any [[Putting on the Reich|parallels with Nazi Germany]] are probably intentional). Organic slaves are also seen a status symbol, but that's more for, er, ''[[Go-Go Enslavement|personal]]'' [[Go-Go Enslavement|needs]]. In particular, the, er, export of female Twi'leks from Ryloth is one of their most important industries. The resulting decline in the planetary population is the entire point; the Twi'leks essentially sold themselves into slavery to get *off* Ryloth. Evolution does not proceed to a perfect adaptation, only a reproductively sufficient one. The Twi'leks found the sufficiency of their adaptation extremely marginal.

** Wookiees and Mon Calamari are described as being favoured for slave labour due to their strength, dexterity, creativity, and intuitive understanding of mechanics and electronics, making them ideal for engineering work. In addition, the prequels reveal that the Wookiees helped Yoda escape Kashyyyk; Palpatine might have decided to enslave them as punishment. It is also implied that the main customers of the slave trade are from worlds which ''don't'' have access to advanced technologies (Ryloth is said to have 19th century technology and little inhabitable land).

** If you're counting the Extended Universe, the Yuuzhan Vong utilize slavery almost purely for status reasons.

** In the EU, the spice mines of Kessel were worked by slave labour; when Luke puts an end to this, the Republic, at his suggestion, keeps the mines in operation, still worked by living beings. This time, however, the miners will be paid, and hired from species who have evolved in the same sort of environment. The dark and cold and tight confines of the tunnels make droid mining impractical.

** One would think that the sex slaves alone would pay for the whole business.

*** Manpower's business model is generally considered to be sound, just horribly cruel. Their [[Sex Slave|'pleasure models']] are highly profitable and very popular with [[Aristocrats Are Evil|a certain subset of the upper-classes]], not to mention coming with a built-in black-mail hook. Even their industrial lines make more sense than a lot of example of this trope; they're mostly highly-skilled technicians, not manual labourers<ref>On several occasions characters point out just how ''dangerous'' a slave [[Genius Bruiser|genetically engineered for both strength and intellect]] can be if you lose control.</ref> (although there ''are'' some examples of manual labour as well, pointed out in-universe as inefficient). {{spoiler|The part that starts to tip people off that there's more to them than meets the eye is how they insist on getting mixed up in things that ''aren't their business'', when they should logically just write it off as an unavoidable expense.}}

* ''[[Dune]]''. Justified in that after the [[Robot War|Butlerian Jihad]], complex autonomous machines are forbidden for millennia. Even regular old ''calculators'' are replaced by (highly-paid) people known as Mentats.

** Most of these are Buddislamic slaves "harvested" from primitive worlds. The justification: their ancestors refused to fight machines, so the descendants have to pay the price. Even more, they should be ''[[Happiness in Slavery|happy]]'' to do their part.

* In [[H. Beam Piper]]'s story [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20726 "A Slave Is A Slave"], Aditya became a feudal world of a few masters ruling a population of slaves after the fall of the interstellar [[The Federation|Federation]]. One of the characters notes that slavery is economically inefficient compared to automation, but was apparently instituted to help the ruling class keep control.

* Slavery is a major theme in [[Charles Stross]] ''Accelerando''. The very first chapter is about the precedent that prevents artificial intelligences and uploads from being treated as property. One protagonist is a male submissive; his daughter sells herself into slavery [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|to herself]] to get away from her mother, taking advantage of a loophole in Islamic law. {{spoiler|the alien and later human-made sentient corporations use minds as a currency}}. But manual labour itself is more or less entirely obsolete, what with [[The Singularity]].

* A scenario like this is used in-character in ''Martians in Maggody'', when a reporter convinces two guilible locals that stealing copies of a UFO enthusiast's computer files is the only way to prevent scary aliens from enslaving humanity and forcing everyone to work in mines. Subverted in that {{spoiler|the reporter is not only feeding them [[Dead Horse Trope]]s to trick them into helping him, he's not even a reporter. He's an IRS agent investigating the UFO enthusiast's unreported profits from book sales and lecture fees.}}

* Played straight in the mines of [[Star Wars|Kessel]]. Use of anything other than manual labor risks exposing the glitterstim spice to light or heat and reducing its value and potency.

* In ''Nova'' by Samuel Delany, everyone in the future has cyborg implants that allow them to interface with machinery, letting people control any machine, from vacuum cleaners to spaceships, and pseuodo-physically perform labor through them- not quite manual labor, but not using robots. While it would be possible to automate everything, it was found that people have a psychological need to connect their actions to work rather than letting robots do everything for them.

* Subverted with humans in ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' books, who strive to computerize anything and everything. In fact, at least one [[Mega Corp]] creates new colonies by sending a completely-automated factory. Human workers are only added in later stages to oversee the operation and expansion. Played straight with the [[Bee People|Insects]], who had highly-advanced technology [[Precursors|3 million years ago]] but have never had the need to develop complex machines due to their enormous work force, which is created by artificially de-evolving intelligent members of their race into mindless drones. This process is completely reversible, making their race extremely versatile.

* Appears as an [[Unbuilt Trope]] in ''[[The Sleeper Awakes]]''. Being written before [[wikipedia:Fordism|Fordism]] and mass-production, the future society contains a large slave class which is initally presented this way. It's only revealed late on that in fact manual labour is almost obsolete and the future slaves simply operate the machines all day.

* The ''[[Myst]]'' tie-in novel ''The Book of D'ni'' introduces the Tehranee, a race of people so advanced, especially in engineering and chemistry, that they are universally indolent, wiling away their days in the pursuit of superior artistry and poesis, while the burden of building and maintaining their vast artworks is placed on a huge caste of slaves. Worse, these people's linking technology allows them to travel instantly to any planet they can describe, giving them access to basically unlimited resources of every kind, which should make all forms of slavery utterly obsolete. Thus, the Tehranee preserve slavery apparently just because it's traditional and they can't be bothered to create a better system.

== Tabletop Games ==

** Not because the Magos on board doesn't know how to build a decent automatic and mechanised loading system (He knows how, even if he doesn't know ''why'' it works), it's because it's far cheaper and easier to just beat some people over the head to do it manually.

** Given the level of [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] in this setting, making intelligent machines would fall under the category of ''[[AI Is a Crapshoot|Very Bad Ideas]]''.

** Zone {{spoiler|Washington, where the human inhabitants believe themselves to be the sole remaining human-controlled nation and labor mightily to maintain the strength of their military robots to keep it that way - controlled, of course, by their 'tame' AI that in actuality runs the government.}}

** Some of the Zoneminds that have instead chosen to ruthlessly eradicate all humans immediately are actually at an economic disadvantage to their bretheren because of it, both due to the lack of cheap labor and the extra resources they've expended in the extermination efforts.

* This is almost to be expected in ''[[Rifts]]'', given the [[Schizo-Tech]] of the setting. Throughout much of North America, people are often enslaved or indentured, turned into cyborgs and used as miners. The Coalition doesn't use slave-borgs, but [[Fantastic Racism|nonhumans]] are sometimes enslaved and employed in the mega-cities or the 'burbs. In magic-dominated places, meanwhile, slavery is widespread and slaves are used for any and every task, be it labor, warfare, [[Gladiator Games]], [[Sex Slave|sex]] or [[To Serve Man|food]] (the latter is a big one, since a ''lot'' of alien evils do it to cement their [[Card-Carrying Villain]] status).

* In ''[[Eve Online]]'' the Amarr Empire makes a wide use of slaves. Although they could easily replace most of their slaves with advanced technology, like the other nations have done, the Amarr believe that, by enslaving "lesser" peoples like the Minmatar, they are saving these people's souls. It's no surprise that the Amarr are quite far behind technologically when compared to the Gallente and especially the Caldari.

* The second ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' game, ''No Regret'', makes a few things clear. First, the most valuable mineral in the solar system is found almost exlusively on the moon—almost half of known reserves are there. Second, the [[Mega Corp|WEC]] ships mostly political prisoners there, to get them out of the way and do mining with minimal safety while surrounded by heavily-armed guards. Third, the game's own lore states that while semi-sentient guard robots and maintenance bots are present, they are apparently quite expensive, compared to unprotected laborers operating nonsentient machinery with guns pointed at their heads. Played straight, justifed, and subvereted all at once.

* The batarians in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' still practice slavery, despite a being starfaring civilisation for centuries. They argue that slavery is a "cultural right" of their people; the [[The Federation|Council]] doesn't buy it.

** Slavery is also practiced on the asari planet Illium. Only it's called "indentured servitude," ''thank you'' very much. It's considered perfectly legal and is tightly regulated with restrictions on treatment and terms of service, legal requirements for documented consensus on the part of the servant, and strict limitations on how long the servant can remain indentured. It should also be noted that indentured servants aren't necessarily physical workers; they can be practically anything and are contracted to do a normal job for a company or individual. Well, just without pay. Or the ability to leave. Or... You get the point. One indentured servant you meet on Illium is a software engineer who had a gambling debt problem.

*** Those aren't mindless.

** I think the best answer to the question is the simple answer: [[Cold-Blooded Torture|Arthas is a dick]].

* In ''Elite'' you could trade in slaves, though it would mean your legal status would take a hit. You could even ''accidentally'' pick up slaves if you scooped up an escape pod from an enemy ship (and there was no way to free them, or hand them over to the cops). [[Open Source Remake]] ''[[Oolite]]'' fixed this by offering a small reward paid out from the survivor's insurance policy instead, and occasionally a bounty from the local police if they turn out to be a wanted felon, but [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|you can still do it anyway if you feel like being a dick.]]

== Other ==

** Cosplay is a good example, most cosplayers will make their own costumes. Ditto Goth, [[Elegant Gothic Lolita|Gothic Lolita]] and other "do it yourself" fashions promoting hard work and original looks. They will mock those whose hardest work is swiping the credit card.

** Cooking is another. [[The Fifties]] promised us a [[The Jetsons|Jetson's kitchen]] complete with [[Food Pills]]. Many of the "labor saving devices" never really caught on, except the blender and food processor. We know more about diet now, many people shun processed foods for their high sugar and fat content. Many people today prepare their meals with ordinary kitchen utensils and hard work (and food grown locally from small farms).

*** Only he's a biologist (biophysicist and physiologist to be precise) and ornithologist by his main published body of ''scientific'' works. Anthropology is something of a hobby of his, and his anthropological works are hotly disputed.

* Taking advantage of their food being very heavily standardized, McDonald's once experimented with a robotic kitchen, going so far as to build a Hong Kong outlet that used one. They scrapped the idea, but not the outlet, when the construction and maintenance turned out to be far more costly than employees. Their one fully automated outlet is still there, as a minor tourist attraction, but building more isn't worthwhile with today's technology.

** Not to mention that the 19 year old is a lot more versatile than any autoloader, he can help you change a tread, watch your back while you make repairs, or fill in for a comrade if they get incapacitated. Try to get an autoloader to do any of those things!

*** Which is exactly what one 19-th century Russian general said about the machine gun: "Mitralleuse is in fact an automated rifleman, which is bulky and has to be taken care of. Human rifleman, on the other hand, can take care of anything he is ordered". It should be noted that he considered machine guns useful in special conditions, namely, when you are limited in manpower or space. Such conditions included ships and colonial expeditions. Cue the Maxim gun and two World Wars...