Re: How much of economics is real?
Economics is always a factor. Somebody is designing and programming these machines. Human prosperity would just move up a huge notch, and prices of commodities would drop a huge notch.
The Industrial Revolution did much the same thing on a less drastic scale. The poorest person in America lives better than many kings did a few hundred years ago. One farmer can now grow what a village full of peasants had to grow back then. There are many other examples.