Me in The Futurist
The Jan/Feb ’14 issue of The Futurist has an article by me on “When the Economy Transcends Humanity”:
What will our economy, workplaces, and society look like when we can copy our brains and build virtual workers to do our jobs? An economist looks at the next great era, a world dominated by robots. (more; ungated)
It doesn’t break new ground, but may be more accessible. You’ll notice the editor liked to sprinkle popular movie references movies; does that really help accessibility?
I doubt cheap land would be much of a priority. But yes they wouldn't be comfy for humans.
"Such cities might look somewhat like the dense tall cities of The Fifth Element or Star Wars"
I suppose that's the editor talking, and I think it's a misleading thing to say. Em cities would probably not be accessible to humans and their vehicles, and they could be built in inhospitable places where the land isn't expensive.