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We're going to need a new system. The profit motive of corporations is directly in conflict with the duty to social good. As we proceed into an automated futu

We're going to need a new system. The profit motive of corporations is directly in conflict with the duty to social good. As we proceed into an automated future, our labor protections are pricing humans out of the market. A great deal of unnecessary evil and pain worldwide results from this conflict. At the scale of corporations such as Verizon, even a cost efficiency of one cent per transaction can translate into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on the bottom line. Simple state machines with rigorously defined transitions are very efficient. Creatively handling exceptions and undefined states is a capability of human employees, and it's often very inefficient to do so. A million automated transactions could occur for every one bespoke transaction requiring ingenious human attention. Ideally, corporations would prefer not to hire people at all, but where does that leave us as a society?

hanniabu 6y ago
> As we proceed into an automated future, our labor protections are pricing humans out of the market Not just that, but the skill and knowledge requirements to compete with automation will continue to grow and less and less people will be able to meet that demand. Many people argue that many thought this would be the case with many technical revolutions before, but fail to admit that it's converging on a singularity. Sure jobs we didn't know would exist are being created where people can shift their work to, but the cycle for automation is becoming shorter and cheaper and sooner or later we as humans won't be able to keep up (unless you meet the high demands which are unreasonable to expect everyone to adapt to).
3814058 6y ago
But say that we are pragmatic and realistic. What kind of democratic solution do you see us humans make in the first three decades of this problem (when it really starts to hurt a lot of people)? And what kind of realistic solution would be better? I ask because I don't see many good solutions in my life time that will solve any of this. As you can guess I'm skeptical of UBI where people can live comfortably in the first decades due to culture and I'm from northern Europe.

hanniabu 6y ago

> As we proceed into an automated future, our labor protections are pricing humans out of the market Not just that, but the skill and knowledge requirements to compete with automation will continue to grow and less and less people will be able to meet that demand. Many people argue that many thought this would be the case with many technical revolutions before, but fail to admit that it's converging on a singularity. Sure jobs we didn't know would exist are being created where people can shift their work to, but the cycle for automation is becoming shorter and cheaper and sooner or later we as humans won't be able to keep up (unless you meet the high demands which are unreasonable to expect everyone to adapt to).

3814058 6y ago

But say that we are pragmatic and realistic. What kind of democratic solution do you see us humans make in the first three decades of this problem (when it really starts to hurt a lot of people)? And what kind of realistic solution would be better? I ask because I don't see many good solutions in my life time that will solve any of this. As you can guess I'm skeptical of UBI where people can live comfortably in the first decades due to culture and I'm from northern Europe.