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I think that's probably far too broad. E.g. I don't have a problem with the IRS using computers to calculate how much people owe in taxes based on the info the

I think that's probably far too broad. E.g. I don't have a problem with the IRS using computers to calculate how much people owe in taxes based on the info they collect. The number of people it would take to do that manually might be unreasonable. W-2 info has to be to the IRS by Jan 31st, taxes are due April 15th, that's 51 days to generate a couple hundred million tax return numbers. Federal payroll is something else that would probably take an unreasonable number of people to manage manually.

hotpotamus 4y ago
In the sci-fi universe being quoted, they used drug-enhanced humans for all calculation after narrowly averting an AI based catastrophe. Honestly, I'm finding it pretty prescient stuff for 1965 myself.
ThunderSizzle 4y ago
If taxes can't be done in paper with basic math, then it's too complicated. Automating it just makes everyone unknowing victims to the tax corruption congress persists in.
- greggman3 4y ago
  what part of taxes can't be done in paper and basic math? Sure there's possibly 100s or 1000s or tens of 10000s papers to read and basic math to do but haven't personally run into anything other than addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division doing taxes I agree USA taxes are ridiculously over complicated and there's tons of tax corruption
  - ThunderSizzle 4y ago
    You answered it yourself. 100s of pages isn't sensible. 1 page, 5-10 variables, done. Anything more is just congress trying to create retirement plans for themselves via lobbyist and special interests.
delecti 4y ago
> E.g. I don't have a problem with the IRS using computers to calculate how much people owe in taxes Or the census, which was an early adopter of computers (give or take your definition of a computer), because not doing so was taking almost the full 10 years between censuses. https://www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/tabulation_and_processing.html https://www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/ta...
danjoredd 4y ago
Its a quote from Dune. IDK if OP is being serious or not. Basically AI similar to human intelligence has been banned, and hyper-intelligent humans called "Mentats" have largely replaced computers, and help navigate ships through space, as well as complete complex math and probability problems. They are also often used as advisors.
- BEEdwards 4y ago
  >and help navigate ships through space the spacing guild handles ships, they do train their minds, but not in the same way as mentats. They use spice melange's prescient powers to navigate more than maths.

hotpotamus 4y ago

In the sci-fi universe being quoted, they used drug-enhanced humans for all calculation after narrowly averting an AI based catastrophe. Honestly, I'm finding it pretty prescient stuff for 1965 myself.

ThunderSizzle 4y ago

If taxes can't be done in paper with basic math, then it's too complicated. Automating it just makes everyone unknowing victims to the tax corruption congress persists in.

greggman3 4y ago
what part of taxes can't be done in paper and basic math? Sure there's possibly 100s or 1000s or tens of 10000s papers to read and basic math to do but haven't personally run into anything other than addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division doing taxes I agree USA taxes are ridiculously over complicated and there's tons of tax corruption
- ThunderSizzle 4y ago
  You answered it yourself. 100s of pages isn't sensible. 1 page, 5-10 variables, done. Anything more is just congress trying to create retirement plans for themselves via lobbyist and special interests.

delecti 4y ago

> E.g. I don't have a problem with the IRS using computers to calculate how much people owe in taxes Or the census, which was an early adopter of computers (give or take your definition of a computer), because not doing so was taking almost the full 10 years between censuses. https://www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/tabulation_and_processing.html https://www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/ta...

danjoredd 4y ago

Its a quote from Dune. IDK if OP is being serious or not. Basically AI similar to human intelligence has been banned, and hyper-intelligent humans called "Mentats" have largely replaced computers, and help navigate ships through space, as well as complete complex math and probability problems. They are also often used as advisors.

BEEdwards 4y ago
>and help navigate ships through space the spacing guild handles ships, they do train their minds, but not in the same way as mentats. They use spice melange's prescient powers to navigate more than maths.