4 ms·
Railroads lead to a distribution of capital into the society and to a long term increase of wealth for many. Ai leads to a capital concentration on the hands o
by niemandhier 1y ago
Railroads lead to a distribution of capital into the society and to a long term increase of wealth for many.
Ai leads to a capital concentration on the hands of those that already have money and might lead to a long term reduction of wealth for the middle class.
Less purchasing power in the population usually is not good for economic development, so I have my doubts with respect to a boom .
- chii 1y ago> Railroads lead to a distribution of capital into the society does it? I recall that railroads were monopolies (the vanderbilts). The gov't had to pass an act to break them up, because there were price collusions and farmers were forced to pay a higher price for their transport of foodstuffs. > Ai leads to a capital concentration on the hands of those that already have money that is true for a lot of other capital intensive ventures. Why pick ai specifically? And AI is less monopolistic - at least it's not a natural monopoly. There are competition, and there are alternatives.
- ruined 1y agorailroads are for moving freight, and you don't move freight if you're not selling goods. yes there were trust issues, but fundamentally a railroad requires a surrounding market. ai does not, and seems to suffer the "resource curse" https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Mak2kZuTq8Hpnqyzb/the-intelligence-curse https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Mak2kZuTq8Hpnqyzb/the-intell...
- niemandhier 1y agoRailroads needed steel and construction. They were giant infrastructure projects build by thousands of humans. Ai is not.
- chii 1y agohow many more people are involved in the entire supply chain of a single chip, compared to construction of rail roads?