21–30 of 48 posts
Until we have AGI, I expect automation to be similar to the past. Where productivity increases along with material wealth and standard of living. After AGI, "what jobs will people do?" is probably the most uninteresting part.
If we are headed towards a post-labor society (which I doubt, but that’s a different topic), the first thing we need to do is radically reconsider how our society thinks about property and wealth. Otherwise, we’ll have a small class of property holding aristocrats and everyone else is screwed.
I must be living in the future then, because that's what I see currently
If I didn’t have to work, I would spend my days drawing, reading, gardening, hiking, camping, meeting friends, eating and cleaning. A little bit of time creating things and a lot of time admiring the creations of others and of nature. A life centered around making and discovering beauty in the world… it sounds like a dream!
I would also love to see more of my friends’ children and have a more active hand in helping to raise them.
If many other people spent their time similarly, the world would be very fun imo
get a chance to enjoy life not burdened by capitalistic chains hopefully.
This brought up an interesting question. Without work, people who have worked would likely treasure that freedom and not abuse it. But would people who have never worked understand the constraints of resources and not abuse the system? This might be worded too absolutely, but I'm sure there are some abusers in any group. Or perhaps our stereotypes of rich kids are completely unfounded?
Even if it could, if your motivation is genuine, i.e. you're not making music for profit but because you enjoy the process, then it doesn't matter anyway if an AI can or cannot do it.
i figure a couple of clues as to where we're headed...
1) the black population in america. largely discarded, warehoused in prisons and and kept in poor, hopeless neighborhoods. add in large populations of poor white people in vast swaths of rural land areas.
and, possibly in a much more extreme situation,
2) palestinians in the west bank, and particularly gaza. gaza has been described as the world's largest open-air prison, with good reason. at the current rate, they're doomed, too.
both situations are just US policy - they're not magic, or what other people or governments choose to do.
what do all these people do in their current circumstances? try to survive. try to maintain some semblence of dignity. try to hold onto their humanity and that of the people doing this to them.
so, our current neoliberalism craze is stratifying the US population by income even more, creating more and more extraneous/disposable populations.
automation might be exacerbating our move towards faciscm and domination and extraneous populations, but it's only that -- just helping, not a primary driver, imo.
- 4-day work week could help.
- things like GBI could help.
- billionaires and rich people paying taxes could help.
- organizing obviously could help.
- technology sanity (ludditism) could help.
- a less insane intellectual culture could help.
- more democracy could help.