4 ms·

Do you not think that the allocation of human time is one of the world’s biggest problems?

wood_spirit 4mo ago
Reallocating human time is also going to cause problems. But it’s a great short term business opportunity for AI vendors and it was Anthropic who went all in on being knowledge worker outsourcing in a big way first whilst OpenAI thought they’d replace Google in search. I think Anthropic had the better business strategy.
spaceman_2020 4mo ago
It’s a problem for capitalists, not the people themselves The people want cheaper prices, affordable housing, affordable healthcare Capitalism has decided that these problems aren’t worth solving. Instead, we must optimize for spam and slop (and call it “distribution”)
- aswegs8 4mo ago
  I feel like one mental model here is that the attention is limited and under capitalism capital aggregates in the hands of few. Their attention is limited to things that immediately better their position, the most capital-efficient thing to do is to gather more capital. Cheaper prices, affordable housing, affordable healthcare are less capital-efficient. If you're Walmart, sure, you would like to lower prices as much as possible. But your leverage really isn't as big as finance or tech. If you're a politician, you might also pursue those goals, but your attention and leverage really isn't as focused as that of the money machine.
ElProlactin 4mo ago
Honestly, not really. We can have a philosophical debate about work, the history of work and its relationship to human psychology in the 21st century but the bottom line is that there are 8+ billion people on the planet and, of those who are "working age", the vast majority of people, lacking meaningful capital, can only secure income by selling their time and labor. There's absolutely no evidence that if we come up with a way to "reallocate human time" and change the structure of our civilization (using AI of course) tomorrow, the masses would benefit. There's plenty of evidence that the people who control AI or have the capital to employ it will use it to accumulate as much power and wealth for themselves as they can.
- cyanydeez 4mo ago
  theres also no evidence that any of the manual labor will benefit. we are nowhere near the type of scifi utopia that gives us replicator food. aside from capitalism moving money up and living condotions down, AI is going to accelerate the gap between rich and everyone else.
  - wordpad 4mo ago
    Starvation is already not a thing anymore.
    - NackerHughes 4mo ago
      Then why are people starving?
      - hazbot 4mo ago
        The generous interpretation of the OPs comment it was gentle hyperbole but directionally correct relative to the not so distant past.
      - __patchbit__ 4mo ago
        Israel is starving 2 million plus people by collective punishment area access denial and the blackmarket for food trades USD$250 for a dozen eggs.
        throw394689 4mo ago
        This is not true. As of Jan 2026 the price of eggs in Gaza is 25 Shekels for 30 eggs: https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WFP-Palestine-Food-Security-Analysis.pdf https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WFP-Pa... You’re just repeating old outdated bits of propaganda. Also, nice that you’re estimating that there’s been no decline in population size over the past 3 years. At least you slipped a bit of truth out in an attempt to demonize them.
    - 4mo ago
ezconnect 4mo ago
For the Capitalist crowd, YES it is the biggest cost. The next is energy. Imagine a world where your research and development is all AI and the production is all automated by robots. Instant product to sell to the masses who has no money because no one is working.
- TheOtherHobbes 4mo ago
  In the future a few thousand billionaire geniuses will own a world of unimaginable luxury and near-infinite longevity. They will make the decisions, AI will execute them, and robots will do the physical work. Everyone else will be reduced to compost. It's the perfect plan. The final definitive justification for capitalism. The masses are unnecessary. The masses will be optimised. What could possibly go wrong?
  - ahtihn 4mo ago
    Why do billionaires keep working, keep amassing more money, donate to politicians, buy media companies? They want influence and power. Being at the top of a hierarchy of millions, billions of people. If there are no massess the 1000th billionaire will be a the bottom of the hierarchy instead of near the top. They don't want that. The masses are needed to give them the sense of power. What these people want is power and control. Eliminating the masses goes against that.
    - bigbuppo 4mo ago
      They now have the AI that gives them the praise they want. We have been made redundant.
    - timacles 4mo ago
      I don’t think that’s it. I think the only thing that motivates billionaire is just to have more than the next guy. The only thing that motivates Bezos is that Elon Musk’s has more and conversely Elon Musk would have a existential crisis if he was no longer number one
  - jpadkins 4mo ago
UncleMeat 4mo ago
We can’t reallocate time unless there is an alternative source of income. But all these companies just want to extract wealth, not distribute it.

Reallocating human time is also going to cause problems. But it’s a great short term business opportunity for AI vendors and it was Anthropic who went all in on being knowledge worker outsourcing in a big way first whilst OpenAI thought they’d replace Google in search. I think Anthropic had the better business strategy.

spaceman_2020 4mo ago

It’s a problem for capitalists, not the people themselves The people want cheaper prices, affordable housing, affordable healthcare Capitalism has decided that these problems aren’t worth solving. Instead, we must optimize for spam and slop (and call it “distribution”)

aswegs8 4mo ago
I feel like one mental model here is that the attention is limited and under capitalism capital aggregates in the hands of few. Their attention is limited to things that immediately better their position, the most capital-efficient thing to do is to gather more capital. Cheaper prices, affordable housing, affordable healthcare are less capital-efficient. If you're Walmart, sure, you would like to lower prices as much as possible. But your leverage really isn't as big as finance or tech. If you're a politician, you might also pursue those goals, but your attention and leverage really isn't as focused as that of the money machine.

ElProlactin 4mo ago

Honestly, not really. We can have a philosophical debate about work, the history of work and its relationship to human psychology in the 21st century but the bottom line is that there are 8+ billion people on the planet and, of those who are "working age", the vast majority of people, lacking meaningful capital, can only secure income by selling their time and labor. There's absolutely no evidence that if we come up with a way to "reallocate human time" and change the structure of our civilization (using AI of course) tomorrow, the masses would benefit. There's plenty of evidence that the people who control AI or have the capital to employ it will use it to accumulate as much power and wealth for themselves as they can.

cyanydeez 4mo ago
theres also no evidence that any of the manual labor will benefit. we are nowhere near the type of scifi utopia that gives us replicator food. aside from capitalism moving money up and living condotions down, AI is going to accelerate the gap between rich and everyone else.
- wordpad 4mo ago
  Starvation is already not a thing anymore.
  - NackerHughes 4mo ago
    Then why are people starving?
    - hazbot 4mo ago
      The generous interpretation of the OPs comment it was gentle hyperbole but directionally correct relative to the not so distant past.
    - __patchbit__ 4mo ago
      Israel is starving 2 million plus people by collective punishment area access denial and the blackmarket for food trades USD$250 for a dozen eggs.
      - throw394689 4mo ago
        This is not true. As of Jan 2026 the price of eggs in Gaza is 25 Shekels for 30 eggs: https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WFP-Palestine-Food-Security-Analysis.pdf https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WFP-Pa... You’re just repeating old outdated bits of propaganda. Also, nice that you’re estimating that there’s been no decline in population size over the past 3 years. At least you slipped a bit of truth out in an attempt to demonize them.
  - 4mo ago

ezconnect 4mo ago

For the Capitalist crowd, YES it is the biggest cost. The next is energy. Imagine a world where your research and development is all AI and the production is all automated by robots. Instant product to sell to the masses who has no money because no one is working.

TheOtherHobbes 4mo ago
In the future a few thousand billionaire geniuses will own a world of unimaginable luxury and near-infinite longevity. They will make the decisions, AI will execute them, and robots will do the physical work. Everyone else will be reduced to compost. It's the perfect plan. The final definitive justification for capitalism. The masses are unnecessary. The masses will be optimised. What could possibly go wrong?
- ahtihn 4mo ago
  Why do billionaires keep working, keep amassing more money, donate to politicians, buy media companies? They want influence and power. Being at the top of a hierarchy of millions, billions of people. If there are no massess the 1000th billionaire will be a the bottom of the hierarchy instead of near the top. They don't want that. The masses are needed to give them the sense of power. What these people want is power and control. Eliminating the masses goes against that.
  - bigbuppo 4mo ago
    They now have the AI that gives them the praise they want. We have been made redundant.
  - timacles 4mo ago
    I don’t think that’s it. I think the only thing that motivates billionaire is just to have more than the next guy. The only thing that motivates Bezos is that Elon Musk’s has more and conversely Elon Musk would have a existential crisis if he was no longer number one
- jpadkins 4mo ago

UncleMeat 4mo ago

We can’t reallocate time unless there is an alternative source of income. But all these companies just want to extract wealth, not distribute it.