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If you took someone from the 1990s and dumped them in 2026, I think one of the biggest shocks to them would be how optional humans are everywhere. You can't get

If you took someone from the 1990s and dumped them in 2026, I think one of the biggest shocks to them would be how optional humans are everywhere. You can't get a human on the phone when you call a business anymore. We check out our own groceries with machines now. We order fast food from a kiosk or app instead of a person. Self-driving taxis. Robots doing work and AI making content. Apps mediating all kinds of relationships (personal, romantic, business, employee-employer) rather than the humans themselves. We've kind of just allowed technology to start making us all irrelevant. What is the return on this investment?

toomuchtodo 12d ago
> What is the return on this investment? ~$5T/year in profits from the US, concentrated to the ~10% of American households who hold ~93% of equities, while the socioeconomic and social systems continue towards failure. Progress! /s https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49644650 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49644650 (citations) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357337 (citations) U.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new low - https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/ai-boom-labor-workers-income https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/ai-boom-labor-workers-incom... - August 6th, 2026 Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44119317 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44119317 - May 2025 (Report: https://www.lisep.org/mql https://www.lisep.org/mql)
- QDwQ1 12d ago
  the line WILL go up
andai 12d ago
UBI or mass death, by my reckoning. I've also got $50 on "massive fake jobs program", because the unemployment will be a social / psychological disaster even if the economics turn out to be straightforward.
Frieren 12d ago
> We've kind of just allowed technology to start making us all irrelevant. That accelerated when big tech companies became advertisement companies. Suddenly, there was a push to increase time on the screen thru mass data gathering. As far as it is profitable to keep people's noses glued to a screen there is going to be an increase on people that is alone and disconnected. Even dating is done thru apps that promote looking for the perfect inexistent partner. The more you look for a partner and the less you get one the more profits they get. Something should have never been a business.
- DeluluDon 12d ago
  *was done through apps, people decided to get smart about this and finding people IRL or LinkedIn

toomuchtodo 12d ago

> What is the return on this investment? ~$5T/year in profits from the US, concentrated to the ~10% of American households who hold ~93% of equities, while the socioeconomic and social systems continue towards failure. Progress! /s https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49644650 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49644650 (citations) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357337 (citations) U.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new low - https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/ai-boom-labor-workers-income https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/ai-boom-labor-workers-incom... - August 6th, 2026 Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44119317 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44119317 - May 2025 (Report: https://www.lisep.org/mql https://www.lisep.org/mql)

QDwQ1 12d ago
the line WILL go up

andai 12d ago

UBI or mass death, by my reckoning. I've also got $50 on "massive fake jobs program", because the unemployment will be a social / psychological disaster even if the economics turn out to be straightforward.

Frieren 12d ago

> We've kind of just allowed technology to start making us all irrelevant. That accelerated when big tech companies became advertisement companies. Suddenly, there was a push to increase time on the screen thru mass data gathering. As far as it is profitable to keep people's noses glued to a screen there is going to be an increase on people that is alone and disconnected. Even dating is done thru apps that promote looking for the perfect inexistent partner. The more you look for a partner and the less you get one the more profits they get. Something should have never been a business.

DeluluDon 12d ago
*was done through apps, people decided to get smart about this and finding people IRL or LinkedIn