4 ms·

Thoughts while watching myself be automated

27 points by aebtebeten 2y ago

ok_dad 2y ago
We get ever closer to software replacing humans in a vast array of jobs, people scream and shout about how we need to solve the problem of all those humans with no jobs, yet all I see is the inextricable march to obsolescence for many people, myself included. I’ll add my shout: What’s going to happen to the obsolete humans?
- QuadmasterXLII 2y ago
  We ended up deciding, against all seeming reason, to just stop after nuking each other twice. Perhaps our presidents and dictators can get on the phone and reach a similar agreement. I would quite like them to.
- interstice 2y ago
  The line is that there will always be something to do. But I’m not sure that’s true, ultimately each human only has a limited number of needs - once those are met what’s the utility in having any excess capacity? And what are the chances that we are getting close to that capacity already but the production is so inefficient that only some tiny percentage goes to any one persons actual needs
- OkayPhysicist 2y ago
  Liberation from toil ought to be a good thing, but frankly it's looking more and more like the worst jobs will be the last to go.
- hinkley 2y ago
  There's one scenario where we expand the idea of citizenship to something more like each adult human owns 1/nth of the country, we claw back mineral rights and companies then have to rent the air, the water, the soil, the minerals, and each citizen is entitled to a share of those proceeds of businesses consuming them. What they often leave out when talking about how Scandinavia has good social systems is the fact that they have vast mineral wealth that is subsidizing all of these services. That health care is being paid for substantially with oil profits. Which if oil extraction weren't our quickest route to destructive levels of global warming would be awesome. Instead it's kind of mixed. The tricky bit is finding the maturity to not vote for accelerating extraction now and fucking over your grandchildren in the process. The US doesn't have that - yet - but I'd argue that Scandinavian countries also need a closer examination vis-a-vis the Paris accords.
  - naming_the_user 2y ago
    The Scandinavian countries also have a population size that they can support more easily. The US is massive, right? 45 people per sq km. Sweden is at 28. Finland 18. Norway? 15.
- RGamma 2y ago
  > What’s going to happen to the obsolete humans? Hoping for them (might include myself soon) to organize. Otherwise the market will do its thing and consecutively oversaturate the scraps that are gonna be left with brutal competition.
interstice 2y ago
> what if we run out of data or scaling laws break and algorithmic progress stalls? This is a little funny because similar arguments have been made since the dawn of computers. There was even an argument made once that we had almost ‘solved’ physics. The only constant is change
Workaccount2 2y ago
I don't know if it's hollywood, or hollywood just being a reflection of human's big egos that caused it, but man are people going to have a hard time accepting that emotions and creativity aren't anything particularly special.
- devwastaken 2y ago
  Automation sounds cool until you look at the market and realize that by the time you've tooled it, you need to make different products that require different tooling. It's not like automating Minecraft and eventually "winning" at not having to do anything. In order to do this complex process you need humans with emotions and you need iterative R&D that requires creativity not just in the nerdy engineering but across the spectrum in all elements. The human one is especially difficult to get right.
pcgeller 2y ago
Makes me think of the scene in Player Piano where Vonnegut talks about the soul of a machine operator being pulled into the magnetic tape while their movements are recorded for automation.

27 points by aebtebeten 2y ago

We get ever closer to software replacing humans in a vast array of jobs, people scream and shout about how we need to solve the problem of all those humans with no jobs, yet all I see is the inextricable march to obsolescence for many people, myself included. I’ll add my shout: What’s going to happen to the obsolete humans?

QuadmasterXLII 2y ago
We ended up deciding, against all seeming reason, to just stop after nuking each other twice. Perhaps our presidents and dictators can get on the phone and reach a similar agreement. I would quite like them to.
interstice 2y ago
The line is that there will always be something to do. But I’m not sure that’s true, ultimately each human only has a limited number of needs - once those are met what’s the utility in having any excess capacity? And what are the chances that we are getting close to that capacity already but the production is so inefficient that only some tiny percentage goes to any one persons actual needs
OkayPhysicist 2y ago
Liberation from toil ought to be a good thing, but frankly it's looking more and more like the worst jobs will be the last to go.
hinkley 2y ago
There's one scenario where we expand the idea of citizenship to something more like each adult human owns 1/nth of the country, we claw back mineral rights and companies then have to rent the air, the water, the soil, the minerals, and each citizen is entitled to a share of those proceeds of businesses consuming them. What they often leave out when talking about how Scandinavia has good social systems is the fact that they have vast mineral wealth that is subsidizing all of these services. That health care is being paid for substantially with oil profits. Which if oil extraction weren't our quickest route to destructive levels of global warming would be awesome. Instead it's kind of mixed. The tricky bit is finding the maturity to not vote for accelerating extraction now and fucking over your grandchildren in the process. The US doesn't have that - yet - but I'd argue that Scandinavian countries also need a closer examination vis-a-vis the Paris accords.
- naming_the_user 2y ago
  The Scandinavian countries also have a population size that they can support more easily. The US is massive, right? 45 people per sq km. Sweden is at 28. Finland 18. Norway? 15.
RGamma 2y ago
> What’s going to happen to the obsolete humans? Hoping for them (might include myself soon) to organize. Otherwise the market will do its thing and consecutively oversaturate the scraps that are gonna be left with brutal competition.

interstice 2y ago

> what if we run out of data or scaling laws break and algorithmic progress stalls? This is a little funny because similar arguments have been made since the dawn of computers. There was even an argument made once that we had almost ‘solved’ physics. The only constant is change

Workaccount2 2y ago

I don't know if it's hollywood, or hollywood just being a reflection of human's big egos that caused it, but man are people going to have a hard time accepting that emotions and creativity aren't anything particularly special.

devwastaken 2y ago
Automation sounds cool until you look at the market and realize that by the time you've tooled it, you need to make different products that require different tooling. It's not like automating Minecraft and eventually "winning" at not having to do anything. In order to do this complex process you need humans with emotions and you need iterative R&D that requires creativity not just in the nerdy engineering but across the spectrum in all elements. The human one is especially difficult to get right.

pcgeller 2y ago

Makes me think of the scene in Player Piano where Vonnegut talks about the soul of a machine operator being pulled into the magnetic tape while their movements are recorded for automation.