Real Coffee with Scott Adams Episode 3113 - The Scott Adams School 03/12/26
Mar 12, 2026
Brian Roemmele, a technology and futurism writer focused on payments, voice interfaces, and societal effects of automation. He discusses the Universe 25 collapse and parallels to modern abundance. He explores nanofabrication as an endpoint, why abundance can breed dysfunction, and how guilds and decentralization might help societies adapt to AI and robotics.
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Universe 25 Mouse Utopia Collapse
- John B. Calhoun's Universe 25 mouse experiment created abundance but produced social collapse, 'beautiful ones' isolated at penthouses while violence rose in the town square.
- Reproduction stopped, obesity and perversions rose, and the colony ultimately died despite unlimited food and shelter.
Abundance Can Create A Bored Ruling Class
- Abundance plus automation risks producing a new class of 'beautiful ones' who are bored, wealthy, and seek to control or reduce populations.
- Brian Roemmele links this to elites fearing loss of wealth as money transforms and AI/robotics replace work.
Retrain Purpose Before Work Disappears
- Prepare mentally for technological change by retraining purpose away from traditional jobs and toward creative guilds and meaning-driven activities.
- Roemmele urges readers to view nanofabrication and automation as phases to adapt to, not endpoints.