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I'm sorry. Allow me to qualify my claim and restate it: It's a complete win for everyone except for the morons in charge, and their so-called expert economic a

I'm sorry. Allow me to qualify my claim and restate it: It's a complete win for everyone except for the morons in charge, and their so-called expert economic advisers, who think the functioning of the society has to depend upon everyone needing to work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday in order to have food, shelter, clothing, health, education, justice. (Even if it means creating more and more bullshit jobs). If your pathetic obsolete-jobs-are-always-replaced-with-new-kinds-of-jobs economists cannot update their worldview and their economic policy in light of technological progress, that's not a problem with technological progress. (Only a handful of economists, Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, Robin Hanson, to name a few, have a realistic view of what's coming in terms of socioecononmic impact of tech progress).

lm28469 8y ago
I genuinely can't tell if you're passive aggressive and referencing the author of the quote as "pathetic economists", I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Either way, look at the past 40 years of so of technical progress, it's mostly driven by personal power/wealth quests and has nothing to do with bettering society. People are still working as much as before (actually, society as a whole is working more), but instead of working for survival they're doing it for an enhanced form of survival which mostly consist of buying (gadgets) and consuming ("culture"). The need of buying an iphone n+1 keeps you going day in, day out while the new netflix show distracts you just enough to keep you sane until your next shift. IG / FB reminds you that "if you keep going you'll make it, eventually, maybe. Oh and btw don't forget to buy these new shoes that _influencer_xyz_ talked about". Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Instagram, are enabler / distributer of mindless consumption, be it physical or "cultural". They're not bettering the world in any way. Meanwhile people in the US, one of the most powerful country/economy don't have a proper public health system and have horrendous working conditions. Keep in mind that as tech workers we're relatively immune to most of these things, we're generally above the daily struggle of the _true_ working class (flexible work hours, chill offices, good salaries, job safety) The entire world economy is based on work<>consume, if you remove half of the equation thinking that the system is going to self-regulate I doubt you fully grasp the issue. But hey, everything that's not full blow neoliberalism has to be communism, right.
- fizixer 8y ago
  > I genuinely can't tell if you're passive aggressive and referencing the author of the quote as "pathetic economists", I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm not. I'm referring to today's mainstream economists who have their heads in the sand when it comes to analyzing, assessing, diagnosing, and advising on the effects of tech progress. > Either way, look at the past 40 years of so of technical progress, it's mostly driven by personal power/wealth quests and has nothing to do with bettering society. People are still working as much as before (actually, society as a whole is working more), but instead of working for survival they're doing it for an enhanced form of survival which mostly consist of buying (gadgets) and consuming ("culture"). That's a problem of politicians and economists, not technology. You should understand something about technology. It's a force of nature. There's a factor of inevitability in play here. It is not the case that every year a bunch of greedy, cigar smoking, capitalist billionaires gather in a lavish, dimly lit, oak-wood room and decide how they're going to advance technology and screw over the population. That's not how it works. Technology and innovation comes from the garages, from the workshops, from the basements, whether they belong to big corporations or to the parents of a bunch of geeks. It doesn't matter. Technology happens because people are creative. And they're constantly thinking, and they're coming up with new ideas. What are you going to do to stop this deluge of creativity and innovation? Have some kind of thought control. Ban innovative technological ideas? Even if you are able to do it, what makes you think it won't come from outside. If US doesn't innovate, China will. If Chine doesn't, Russia will. If Russia doesn't, the rest of the world will. When the time for agricultural revolution had come, there wasn't much hunter gatherers could do about it. When the time for industrial revolution had arrived, there wasn't much the kings, queens, peasants, and luddites smashing the looms could do about it. When it's time for artificially intelligent automation and complete elimination of human labor, there won't be much you or I or anyone else will be able to do about it. The best we can do is adapt. And we won't adapt if we don't understand the world around us for what it is.

lm28469 8y ago

I genuinely can't tell if you're passive aggressive and referencing the author of the quote as "pathetic economists", I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Either way, look at the past 40 years of so of technical progress, it's mostly driven by personal power/wealth quests and has nothing to do with bettering society. People are still working as much as before (actually, society as a whole is working more), but instead of working for survival they're doing it for an enhanced form of survival which mostly consist of buying (gadgets) and consuming ("culture"). The need of buying an iphone n+1 keeps you going day in, day out while the new netflix show distracts you just enough to keep you sane until your next shift. IG / FB reminds you that "if you keep going you'll make it, eventually, maybe. Oh and btw don't forget to buy these new shoes that _influencer_xyz_ talked about". Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Instagram, are enabler / distributer of mindless consumption, be it physical or "cultural". They're not bettering the world in any way. Meanwhile people in the US, one of the most powerful country/economy don't have a proper public health system and have horrendous working conditions. Keep in mind that as tech workers we're relatively immune to most of these things, we're generally above the daily struggle of the _true_ working class (flexible work hours, chill offices, good salaries, job safety) The entire world economy is based on work<>consume, if you remove half of the equation thinking that the system is going to self-regulate I doubt you fully grasp the issue. But hey, everything that's not full blow neoliberalism has to be communism, right.

fizixer 8y ago
> I genuinely can't tell if you're passive aggressive and referencing the author of the quote as "pathetic economists", I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm not. I'm referring to today's mainstream economists who have their heads in the sand when it comes to analyzing, assessing, diagnosing, and advising on the effects of tech progress. > Either way, look at the past 40 years of so of technical progress, it's mostly driven by personal power/wealth quests and has nothing to do with bettering society. People are still working as much as before (actually, society as a whole is working more), but instead of working for survival they're doing it for an enhanced form of survival which mostly consist of buying (gadgets) and consuming ("culture"). That's a problem of politicians and economists, not technology. You should understand something about technology. It's a force of nature. There's a factor of inevitability in play here. It is not the case that every year a bunch of greedy, cigar smoking, capitalist billionaires gather in a lavish, dimly lit, oak-wood room and decide how they're going to advance technology and screw over the population. That's not how it works. Technology and innovation comes from the garages, from the workshops, from the basements, whether they belong to big corporations or to the parents of a bunch of geeks. It doesn't matter. Technology happens because people are creative. And they're constantly thinking, and they're coming up with new ideas. What are you going to do to stop this deluge of creativity and innovation? Have some kind of thought control. Ban innovative technological ideas? Even if you are able to do it, what makes you think it won't come from outside. If US doesn't innovate, China will. If Chine doesn't, Russia will. If Russia doesn't, the rest of the world will. When the time for agricultural revolution had come, there wasn't much hunter gatherers could do about it. When the time for industrial revolution had arrived, there wasn't much the kings, queens, peasants, and luddites smashing the looms could do about it. When it's time for artificially intelligent automation and complete elimination of human labor, there won't be much you or I or anyone else will be able to do about it. The best we can do is adapt. And we won't adapt if we don't understand the world around us for what it is.