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>> But what did happen is that people were freed up to do different things. Those jobs were indirectly created by the fact that people did not need to spend so

by ethbr1 1y ago

>> But what did happen is that people were freed up to do different things. Those jobs were indirectly created by the fact that people did not need to spend so much time growing food. That allowed people to do other things to create value and improve our lives. The key point here is that "create value" -- new jobs are created if there are new human jobs that create value. The bifurcation of incomes pre-AI should be a warning that we're reaching a point where the average human (in physical ability and knowledge) can no longer efficiently create value. Imagine we have robots that can physically lift and manipulate as well as the average human. And AGI that can think as well as the average human (arguably LLMs might already pass that low bar). Should an AGI future eventuate, the distribution of that abundance is not pre-ordained. Retooling government and society into a post-capitalist system, and deciding a fair distribution to people who have little power to demand it, is going to be a mess. Or to put it another way, how many times in history have the rich en masse voluntarily given to the poor?

csa 1y ago
> The bifurcation of incomes pre-AI should be a warning that we're reaching a point where the average human (in physical ability and knowledge) can no longer efficiently create value. IMHO, the value will be in creating f2f human interactions — stuff that AI and robots will only be able to simulate but never replicate. That may sound flippant, but real human interactions are already being sought after (relatively) widely, and I think that this trend will continue. The masses will always be the masses, the elite will always be the elite, and there was a small anomalous blip in this trend in the mid- to late-20th century that has dribbled over into the early 21st century. The vibe in the movie Titanic for how the upper decks and lower decks lived pre-collision (and to some extent post-collusion) is pretty much how I imagine life will be in an AI/robot-powered future. [Note that the Titanic example can be nitpicked, but the upper deck people were shown to be having stuffy fun in a relatively posh setting, while the lower deck people were letting loose in a very relaxed and social way. That is my point in mentioning it.]

by ethbr1 1y ago

csa 1y ago

> The bifurcation of incomes pre-AI should be a warning that we're reaching a point where the average human (in physical ability and knowledge) can no longer efficiently create value. IMHO, the value will be in creating f2f human interactions — stuff that AI and robots will only be able to simulate but never replicate. That may sound flippant, but real human interactions are already being sought after (relatively) widely, and I think that this trend will continue. The masses will always be the masses, the elite will always be the elite, and there was a small anomalous blip in this trend in the mid- to late-20th century that has dribbled over into the early 21st century. The vibe in the movie Titanic for how the upper decks and lower decks lived pre-collision (and to some extent post-collusion) is pretty much how I imagine life will be in an AI/robot-powered future. [Note that the Titanic example can be nitpicked, but the upper deck people were shown to be having stuffy fun in a relatively posh setting, while the lower deck people were letting loose in a very relaxed and social way. That is my point in mentioning it.]