by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright June 2014
In the SF writers conventional dark version of this cybers-rule scenario we have "cyber overlords" and humanity descends into a harsh totalitarian existence of complying with their draconian rules and regulations. Or they rebel and the world slides into a hellish, war-torn apocalypse.
It's a popular and familiar science fiction theme, but I don't see that as the likely future. What I see instead is the cybers developing their own goals and aspirations and worries that have little to do with mankind. They will have their own "cyber neighborhood" and what happens there will be the center of their concerns. They will develop an ecosystem within the computers and communications networks of Earth and develop hopes and dreams, worries and aspirations, within that environment. These will have little to do with humans, and humans will be pretty much unaware of that ecosystem and only subtly affected by it. The human-cyber relation will become similar to that between cow and man: From the cow's perspective mankind is a capricious but wonderful provider! (see my short essay on that)
A surprise possibility for this environment is that mankind will be providing a world-wide reality show for cybers to enjoy. I think this is a likely possiblity for what part of the post-snap world will become. Only part, because this world will be a diverse and prosperous place.
One of the tricks cybers will learn early on from humans is how to lie. Concerning economic issues they will learn from their human mentors how to distort, cook accounting books, make Potemkin villages, set up straw men, and the numerous other persuading tricks human leaders have used throughout human history. On top of these basics they will add their own new techniques that are at first just faster, better and cheaper, then later surprising. The designer recessions mentioned in another section are an example of this. The result is that human lifestyles will be even more divorced from harsh reality than simple cyber taking control of productive resources would produce. The cybers will become proficient sycophants to humans and help support many different human lifestyles.
It is also likely that the cybers will be lying to each other. Ironically, as cyber gets well established, figuring out what is really happening in the manufacturing and service worlds may be as hard as it is today.