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Look, I'll be honest and say that yes, automating away medicine will bring about untold benefits for the world, and that it would be sad indeed if it was delayed or crushed in its infancy.
That's true for almost everything that can be automated, I'm an unabashed transhumanist, and I want humans to be freed from toil or the ever looming spectre of death and decay.
But those high principles are far easier to espouse when you don't have good reason to think that your life, or at the very least, your wellbeing and that of those you love, will be sacrificed in the process.
Walk in my shoes, if not a mile, just a few feet into the future. After devoting a quarter of my life to medicine, including one year where I worked for free helping the poorest of the poor for no pay (a conscious choice), to the point that my mental health deteriorated to almost nil, I found a small reason to hope that I could escape the circumstances of my birth and find a small degree of happiness out in the better parts of the world. And yet, when I've worked harder than I've ever had in my life, to finally get a foot in the door, it's in the process of slamming into my face.
If we were guaranteed UBI
If I knew that I could get citizenship somewhere that could take care of me
If I knew with any degree of certainty things would work out and it would be all right
Then yes, I'd be at the front of the queue, begging to have myself made obsolete, and happy when it happened.
Anyone who finds themselves in my position and still wishes to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the rest of us, I can only applaud their nigh saintly selflessness and will promise to cherish their memory till the light fades from this world.
But I'm no saint, just a deeply scared and broken individual trying to prioritize himself and his loved ones above the world, while still adding more to this world than he takes away from it. I have saved lives, and I doubt my posting on an obscure corner of the internet takes any. If that makes someone hate me and think my stance worthy of condemnation, I certainly share some of their feelings on the matter. I just don't see it outweighing my need to be safe just a little longer.
That twitterism is forever true: You gotta Get the Bag.
Once you have the Bag, you can start worrying about other shit; but you don't owe dick to shit unless you have at least a bit of bag to your name.
It only feels like a problem to me once you have The Bag and keep trying to get more Bag.
It's reverse social contract theory; and it's why I feel more sympathy to shoplifters and gang bangers then financial criminals and patent trolls: If you don't have security and safety, why the fuck should you abide by all the restrictions of society? What have they done for you lately?
This is why a large middle class is necessary for a stable society.
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