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>I do wonder what will we do when computers do everything for us. Yeah, this is a pretty existential question that has been posed a lot around here. What do yo

>I do wonder what will we do when computers do everything for us. Yeah, this is a pretty existential question that has been posed a lot around here. What do you do if you do not have to do anything? It is like vacation, forever. You are free to be lazy, or creative, or adventurous, or somewhere in between, but will you be happier? I have been between significant work for a few months and I am itching to do something consequential but I also really enjoy the space to do anything, not that I take full advantage more often than when I was working full time. The ongoing basic universal income study at YC, blog.ycombinator.com/hiring-for-basic-income/ I hope produces some more clarification.

ge96 10y ago
I should check that out regarding the hiring-for-basic-income, I wonder is that a concept or... yeah should read. I don't understand how that proposed system would work as far as how things would be valued unless goods are just given to us/produced. Which you know, with regard to war I don't get what is to be gained, are there concentration camps, are there borders/lands trying to be gained. Also with the sun, what is this argument of diminishing resources if energy comes in from the sun, I mean are "nutrients" destroyed after being taken from the ground and into our bodies? sorry... ranting/rambling. More so it was just, for me when I was not very busy I kind of felt unhappy, am I depressed? What is my purpose? I think the drive might disappear that made us evolve/try to do things in the first place. Then perhaps we become extinct haha. Got too darn efficient. I also realize when we talk it's usually people reverting to themselves talking about themselves (I'm doing this right now). A friend of mine said "that's what people do, that's how you converse, offer your perspective tangible to the current discussion..." I don't know I just feel that I I I I I I (use the letter I) too much. Yes, you might have just had the misfortune of crossing paths with an awkward person. Ha. Thanks though for entertaining my thought. Wall-e is the answer. edit: subbed awkward for neurotic
darpa_escapee 10y ago
> It is like vacation, forever. I guess that's one way to look at death from malnutrition, exposure or untreated illness. We can wax optimistic about what post-automation life could be like, but let's be honest: right now, unless you are an investor in companies that have automated or provide automation solutions, you are in absolutely no position to see 'vacation, forever' on the horizon for yourself or your children in a post-automation world. We should be frantically trying to do everything possible to fix that, however, because automation will be competing against the wage-labor relationship that the majority of people are dependent on.
- SimpleXYZ 10y ago
  If society can change from taxes on tea being too high, it can change when unemployment is 91%.
  - darpa_escapee 10y ago
    The revolution started from tea taxes being too high also had the backing of the richest people at the time in what would become the US. The automation revolution also has the backing of the richest people in the world. I don't think a populist movement was behind the revolution nor here.
- fondry34 10y ago
  Either we fix that, true, or there will be just far less people after a while. In the meantime, starvation may be a common "disease" in 1st world as well, just as it is already in the 3rd world. It's just that automation needs many people. It is to fix the problem of mass production. If there are no consumer masses, there is no need for mass production and thus no need for automation. But maybe the masses are just turned from consumers into products. That is what Google and Facebook already do today. Don't know If I would like to live in such a world. Already now I don't like it to be a Google product. Is that the choice, between starvation in freedom, or being nothing but a product, a second order slave?
  - michaelmrose 10y ago
    If people are starving in the street they will just tear down the nation around them on their way out sounds like a non survival strategy.
andai 10y ago
Maybe, as a species, we've been in this situation before. Perhaps we realized we weren't ready, or never will be, to deal with a world in which all labor is replaced by technology, so we made one last high tech invention to destroy all the technology. The cycle continues!

ge96 10y ago

I should check that out regarding the hiring-for-basic-income, I wonder is that a concept or... yeah should read. I don't understand how that proposed system would work as far as how things would be valued unless goods are just given to us/produced. Which you know, with regard to war I don't get what is to be gained, are there concentration camps, are there borders/lands trying to be gained. Also with the sun, what is this argument of diminishing resources if energy comes in from the sun, I mean are "nutrients" destroyed after being taken from the ground and into our bodies? sorry... ranting/rambling. More so it was just, for me when I was not very busy I kind of felt unhappy, am I depressed? What is my purpose? I think the drive might disappear that made us evolve/try to do things in the first place. Then perhaps we become extinct haha. Got too darn efficient. I also realize when we talk it's usually people reverting to themselves talking about themselves (I'm doing this right now). A friend of mine said "that's what people do, that's how you converse, offer your perspective tangible to the current discussion..." I don't know I just feel that I I I I I I (use the letter I) too much. Yes, you might have just had the misfortune of crossing paths with an awkward person. Ha. Thanks though for entertaining my thought. Wall-e is the answer. edit: subbed awkward for neurotic

darpa_escapee 10y ago

> It is like vacation, forever. I guess that's one way to look at death from malnutrition, exposure or untreated illness. We can wax optimistic about what post-automation life could be like, but let's be honest: right now, unless you are an investor in companies that have automated or provide automation solutions, you are in absolutely no position to see 'vacation, forever' on the horizon for yourself or your children in a post-automation world. We should be frantically trying to do everything possible to fix that, however, because automation will be competing against the wage-labor relationship that the majority of people are dependent on.

SimpleXYZ 10y ago
If society can change from taxes on tea being too high, it can change when unemployment is 91%.
- darpa_escapee 10y ago
  The revolution started from tea taxes being too high also had the backing of the richest people at the time in what would become the US. The automation revolution also has the backing of the richest people in the world. I don't think a populist movement was behind the revolution nor here.
fondry34 10y ago
Either we fix that, true, or there will be just far less people after a while. In the meantime, starvation may be a common "disease" in 1st world as well, just as it is already in the 3rd world. It's just that automation needs many people. It is to fix the problem of mass production. If there are no consumer masses, there is no need for mass production and thus no need for automation. But maybe the masses are just turned from consumers into products. That is what Google and Facebook already do today. Don't know If I would like to live in such a world. Already now I don't like it to be a Google product. Is that the choice, between starvation in freedom, or being nothing but a product, a second order slave?
- michaelmrose 10y ago
  If people are starving in the street they will just tear down the nation around them on their way out sounds like a non survival strategy.

andai 10y ago

Maybe, as a species, we've been in this situation before. Perhaps we realized we weren't ready, or never will be, to deal with a world in which all labor is replaced by technology, so we made one last high tech invention to destroy all the technology. The cycle continues!