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At some point, I became disenchanted with tech and working as a software engineer when I realized that tech doesn't ethically fit into our primitive economic or
by sj8822 3y ago
At some point, I became disenchanted with tech and working as a software engineer when I realized that tech doesn't ethically fit into our primitive economic organization right now. It's made me feel bad about myself and the career path I've chosen.
Basically, with tech, you can build a product with a very limited amount of people and resources with a potentially infinite customer base. And this means that this product can suck up money from the whole world and redirect it into the hands of very few. At its essence, this is the case. With tech, this phenomena is exacerbated to the extreme compared to other industries where more physical resources and labor are required to scale production and distribution of the product, which means more wealth getting spread.
At its core, tech has the potential to exacerbate wealth inequality in mind-boggling proportions.
Our current economic system is not made for tech.
- xyzzy4747 3y agoI think ultimately tech will result in humans being like the rest of animals - completely unable to participate in the economy. This will only start to happen once AGI is reached though which might only be a decade away or less.
- jordwest 3y agoI think you're right, we're going to need to completely rethink our economy to decouple the idea of human effort (Unfortunately I can't see how that's going to happen without everything first falling apart). A single barrel of oil is estimated to replace about 5-10 years of a human's effort in pure energy terms. Our human ability in physical terms was already significantly obsoleted by that. AI feels like the discovery of cheap oil but for mental effort. At the same time, oil is getting more and more expensive and energy intensive to drill (and costly to the environment to use).
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI suspect there will be essentially three different economies - Digital Human-experiences, and hybrid. AGI will focus primarily on problems that can be mostly solved within digital worlds where it can cycle incredibly fast. Building software, finance, paperwork, etc, etc It will eventually evolve to design, control, and operate physical systems, but will need humans to intervene and fix systems (hybrid). The human economy will built on experiences that are explicitly, and intentionally void of computers. Restaurants, guided tours, exploration, etc, etc.
- xyzzy4747 3y agoYes I could see that happening, assuming the AIs don’t manage to outwit humans and subvert power and take over. However, even if humans remain dominant (political power-wise), eventually there will probably be fake humans/cyborgs, like Cylons in Battle Star Galactica, that can do everything humans can but better. And also provide human-level experiences. Impossible to know how long this will take though.
- maxilevi 3y agoBut if people are paying for the product then they value it more than the money right? Tech might bring more inequality, but what is the problem with it if it substantially increases everyones standard of living?
- PeterisP 3y agoIf something makes everything take half as much effort but removes your ability to earn an income (or slashes it more than twice) then it decreases your standard of living despite substantially increasing it for many others.
- maxilevi 3y agoYou are assuming everything else stays static. Maybe if this happens, the ability to do everything in as half as much time will increase competition in a lot of areas bringing prices down and increasing your purchasing power.
- MVissers 3y agoThat’s not what’s happening in the US. Too much concentration of wealth (not just tech), leading to almost 3rd world country health outcomes, education levels plummeting and unaffordability to live. Will backfire at one point if it continues.
- rlt 3y ago> you can build a product with a very limited amount of people and resources If you can do it with limited resources, then so can anyone else. (This is an oversimplification, of course)
- strikelaserclaw 3y agothis is not so straight forward, i've been using google for ten years even though it has been progressively getting worse. Inertia is a hell of a thing. Given a lot of choices, people generally choose one or two and stick to them (these choices mostly being determined by things like first movers advantage, good marketing, etc...)