5 ms·

Fact: The plan is about replacing you with robots at work so they can rake in more profits. In return you get to go on welfare rebranded as UBI. Look it up UBI

Fact: The plan is about replacing you with robots at work so they can rake in more profits. In return you get to go on welfare rebranded as UBI. Look it up UBI is about automation AI replacing humans for profit. (see geordie rose) So your 40k job becomes 10k to 15k welfare. MegaCorps pocket the rest of your wage as reward for selling you out to UBI and AI.

jasonvorhe 7y ago
Labelling opinions as fact doesn't make them facts.
chewz 7y ago
Well, you also get FB, YT and legalized recreational drugs. panem et circenses [1]. Never, ever forget circenses. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses
- kyuudou 7y ago
  All part of the modus operandi of the Plato's Republic crowd, IMO.
Kaiyou 7y ago
That's very nice of them. If I had the means towards that end, I wouldn't hand out welfare like that. In fact, I would probably tend towards the future scenario that was painted in Terminator, only with me controlling the AI, while pretending towards humanity that the AI went out of control. More profits that way. Seriously, if you have that kind of power, what's the incentive to let everyone else live?
- philipkglass 7y ago
  An army of Terminators can't keep you safe from retaliation. Anyone who tries to take over the world with killer robots will be fought by other people. You might be able to provoke World War III by unleashing killer robots against all the world's governments and their militaries, but you won't be able to prosper or even (probably) survive.
  - Kaiyou 7y ago
    You use the Terminators to pretend to be real people and than vote for other Terminators. You take over every country in the world without anyone noticing it even happened.
- kyuudou 7y ago
  > Seriously, if you have that kind of power, what's the incentive to let everyone else live? Ethics and morals, maybe? Basic human empathy? I think I get where you're going with this. There are those, sociopaths and psychopaths for example, who would go to any length to get that kind of power and... what, when they have their T-3000s they're suddenly gonna have a come-to-Jesus moment? Unlikely, yeah.
  - Kaiyou 7y ago
    Ethics and morals are traits that prevent people from raising to power, which is why people in power tend to be sociopaths.
alipang 7y ago
"MegaCorps" in any kind of healthy market will still compete on price, so simply stating that they will "pocket the rest" of AI-related productivity improvements is ridiculous. The more likely outcome is that prices on a whole lot of things are about to drop drastically. Of course this does nothing to help the people who are left out of a job and can no longer contribute as they are no longer cost-effective. UBI is one option to address this, at least partially. Do you have a better one? Ban AI? Do you happen to be an anti-capitalist, and your convenient solution is (big surprise) to remove capitalism as an economic system? I'm not saying the effect of more people being outcompeted from the job market will never be a problem. Perhaps parts of it will be solved with income redistribution being increased. Perhaps part of the effort will be in creating new jobs where humans can not be replaced. Some cookie cutter "anti megacorp" rhetoric ain't likely to help much.
deepsun 7y ago
Well MegaCorps still need customers who can pay. Otherwise we have Great Depression again, when there was a lot of production, but public simply didn't have any money to buy it. The solution last time was to basically distribute money to poor, e.g. fund mega-projects with tax money. I feel like UBI sounds pretty much like that as well.
- Kaiyou 7y ago
  You're stranded on an uninhabited island and got a robot army fulfilling your every wish. ...why again do you need customers?
- iso947 7y ago
  There were major benefits of things like the new deal - massive road systems, parks, etc which allowed America to prosper for the next century. Mass infrastructure investment would be great, trouble is we need educated workers now, not day labourers, so we need to combine the infrastructure building with education both formal and on the job, ideally at a part time rate, say 3 days a week
Jupe 7y ago
Doesn't your 40K job become a 30K salary + 10K UBI? I never thought UBI meant communism. If you want more out of life, get a job that pays over-and-above UBI.
- anticensor 7y ago
  No, it becomes 20k-40k salary + 10k UBI depending on your employer.
TrackerFF 7y ago
Megacorps will still have competition (other megacorps), along with customers (you, I). Automation will bring down costs all over the supply chain, so margins will be thinner. But - they still need customers. No customers, no product.
meddlepal 7y ago
So invest heavily in the stock market and when these megacorps start automating all the jobs ride the likely massive gains?
- Roboprog 7y ago
  Have any recommendations on where to put the money from that payday loan so John Q Workingman can retire early?

jasonvorhe 7y ago

Labelling opinions as fact doesn't make them facts.

chewz 7y ago

Well, you also get FB, YT and legalized recreational drugs. panem et circenses [1]. Never, ever forget circenses. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

kyuudou 7y ago
All part of the modus operandi of the Plato's Republic crowd, IMO.

Kaiyou 7y ago

That's very nice of them. If I had the means towards that end, I wouldn't hand out welfare like that. In fact, I would probably tend towards the future scenario that was painted in Terminator, only with me controlling the AI, while pretending towards humanity that the AI went out of control. More profits that way. Seriously, if you have that kind of power, what's the incentive to let everyone else live?

philipkglass 7y ago
An army of Terminators can't keep you safe from retaliation. Anyone who tries to take over the world with killer robots will be fought by other people. You might be able to provoke World War III by unleashing killer robots against all the world's governments and their militaries, but you won't be able to prosper or even (probably) survive.
- Kaiyou 7y ago
  You use the Terminators to pretend to be real people and than vote for other Terminators. You take over every country in the world without anyone noticing it even happened.
kyuudou 7y ago
> Seriously, if you have that kind of power, what's the incentive to let everyone else live? Ethics and morals, maybe? Basic human empathy? I think I get where you're going with this. There are those, sociopaths and psychopaths for example, who would go to any length to get that kind of power and... what, when they have their T-3000s they're suddenly gonna have a come-to-Jesus moment? Unlikely, yeah.
- Kaiyou 7y ago
  Ethics and morals are traits that prevent people from raising to power, which is why people in power tend to be sociopaths.

alipang 7y ago

"MegaCorps" in any kind of healthy market will still compete on price, so simply stating that they will "pocket the rest" of AI-related productivity improvements is ridiculous. The more likely outcome is that prices on a whole lot of things are about to drop drastically. Of course this does nothing to help the people who are left out of a job and can no longer contribute as they are no longer cost-effective. UBI is one option to address this, at least partially. Do you have a better one? Ban AI? Do you happen to be an anti-capitalist, and your convenient solution is (big surprise) to remove capitalism as an economic system? I'm not saying the effect of more people being outcompeted from the job market will never be a problem. Perhaps parts of it will be solved with income redistribution being increased. Perhaps part of the effort will be in creating new jobs where humans can not be replaced. Some cookie cutter "anti megacorp" rhetoric ain't likely to help much.

deepsun 7y ago

Well MegaCorps still need customers who can pay. Otherwise we have Great Depression again, when there was a lot of production, but public simply didn't have any money to buy it. The solution last time was to basically distribute money to poor, e.g. fund mega-projects with tax money. I feel like UBI sounds pretty much like that as well.

Kaiyou 7y ago
You're stranded on an uninhabited island and got a robot army fulfilling your every wish. ...why again do you need customers?
iso947 7y ago
There were major benefits of things like the new deal - massive road systems, parks, etc which allowed America to prosper for the next century. Mass infrastructure investment would be great, trouble is we need educated workers now, not day labourers, so we need to combine the infrastructure building with education both formal and on the job, ideally at a part time rate, say 3 days a week

Jupe 7y ago

Doesn't your 40K job become a 30K salary + 10K UBI? I never thought UBI meant communism. If you want more out of life, get a job that pays over-and-above UBI.

anticensor 7y ago
No, it becomes 20k-40k salary + 10k UBI depending on your employer.

TrackerFF 7y ago

Megacorps will still have competition (other megacorps), along with customers (you, I). Automation will bring down costs all over the supply chain, so margins will be thinner. But - they still need customers. No customers, no product.

meddlepal 7y ago

So invest heavily in the stock market and when these megacorps start automating all the jobs ride the likely massive gains?

Roboprog 7y ago
Have any recommendations on where to put the money from that payday loan so John Q Workingman can retire early?