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Just own the damn robots

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Re: Just own the damn robots

#261

Post by arichard123 »

letlambda wrote: post #108
arichard123 wrote: post #21

I just don't buy it. I understand I'm in a minority, so let me indulge myself and explain, for a moment, why I think AI / Robots are nothing to worry about. My claim is: Robots will not replace humans in all jobs. Further, it's more than because of Human preference, I think that Robots will lack cognitive abilities that we have. My expectation is that in each area where they are deficient then they may well become a…

>5) Intuitive leaps. e.g. Rubics cube. I'm not sure what a Rubics cube has to do with intuition. But solving a Rubics cube is so firmly within the realm of doable that no one is going to call it AI anymore.

Sorry, that was an incredibly bad example. I meant the invention of a Rubics cube as a product that might sell, as opposed to it's solution. I thought it was an example of a product that had no similar competitor when it was released but was wildly successful.

Re: Just own the damn robots

#262

Post by lostboys67 »

s73ver_ wrote: post #66
taberiand wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you'll be shot, probably by a robot.

But eventually, the robots, unable to cope with what they've got to do, will turn to robot drugs, robot alcohol, and other robot-destructive behaviors to escape.

Ah like Bender and "Olde Fortran"

Re: Just own the damn robots

#263

Post by richardknop »

fastball wrote: post #215
lsiebert wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are assuming equal opportunity for the children of the wealthy vs the children of the poor. It doesn't take any particular smarts to live off of family money though. Investment income doesn't require work to support oneself, properly diversified it will continue to grow. Income from jobs however, does require work. Study after study indicates that wealth provides opportunities, and that most people don't…

But where did the wealthy parents come from? You're setting up a chicken and egg problem for yourself. Wealth had to start somewhere, as I doubt you'd argue that it was handed down to certain families by a deity. Heritage is important. A person does not just have more opportunity because of the wealth of an ancestor - they exist because of that ancestor. Does everyone not deserve to have whatever their ancestors chos…

If you go down the history, most wealth was stolen from people violently and from then on anybody born into these aristocratic families would continue benefiting from the wealth.

A lot of new wealth has been created by people born into poor / middle class families in last 1-2 centuries for sure, especially 20th century.

But there are still families today that are wealthy and their wealth have been with them for 400-500 or more years. And in those cases it's very likely the original wealth was stolen.

It could be that original wealth was gathered during robber baron times by exploiting workers or it could be even older, being passed from generation to generation since medieval times. Which means the original aristocracy probably gained this wealth in a violent conquest.

Re: Just own the damn robots

#264

Post by lostboys67 »

ben_w wrote: post #38
anigbrowl wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That works OK as a deterrent against (some) individuals, but there are numerous historical examples of its failure to scale.

One of the stories of WW1 was a soldier explaining that a machine gun could kill enemy soldiers indefinitely if it had ammo, but the gunner had to stop for the sight of human dead. KillBot doesn’t need to stop. KillBot can read your body language. KillBot knows if you’re loyal to Supreme Leader. KillBot doesn’t care if your death makes you a martyr, all that does is add a few dozen more targets to KillBot’s naughty l…

and if it had a crew to change belts top up the water and hump new boxes of ammo to the front

Re: Just own the damn robots

#265

Post by pgeorgi »

btilly wrote: post #53

A correction to the history of retirement schemes. Retirement schemes go back a lot farther than acknowledged in that article. The most popular to have lots of children in the hopes that one would take care of parents in their old age. But then you having things like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine .

Sure, but Tontines didn't originate in the US (or at least the UK) and therefore there's no need for the author to consider them part of world history.

Re: Just own the damn robots

#266

Post by roymurdock »

sulam wrote: post #238

This “theory” for equities growth is a joke. There is a very simple reason for it and plenty of non-tech baskets show the same 2 yr (or longer) pattern. Simply put, cash and cash equivalents are generating historically low returns. So you put your money in equity. (And if you are a retiree you put it in stocks with dividends. Look at the growth in dividend-generating stocks like energy, mining and metals and it makes…

> we have a year or two left in the current [cycle]

Are you saying that we have a year or two until we see a pick up in productivity (driving real growth and GDP), which will shift investment out of equities and into? Cash and cash equivalents?

Or are you saying that we have a year or two until we see a recession (decline in GNP), triggered by a flight from the equity markets?

Re: Just own the damn robots

#267

Post by CloudYeller »

davidiach wrote: post #221
matthewbauer wrote: post #79

Interesting article but I think the premise that workers are buying tech stocks because they fear automation is incorrect. Gallup found 13% of Americans thought that their jobs would soon be replaced by automation[1]. In fact you usually find more people worried about immigration than automation[2]. Maybe people /should/ be more concerned about automation but they just aren’t right now. [1]: http://news.gallup.com/po…

I think the reason people are not excited is because we are seeing stock market growth without seeing much economic growth. That's unsustainable.

Yes, something feels off. My guess is that huge funds and algo traders have found that the optimal strategy is to create massive long positions while there aren't any major crises. I bet someone out there knows what will trigger a reversal of this strategy-- after all, the gains are only real if you lock them in by selling.

Re: Just own the damn robots

#268

Post by pygy_ »

Digit-Al wrote: post #234
arca_vorago wrote: post #154

Have fun trying to own the robots after we've allowed proprietary licenses and leasing to takeover anything with a CPU attached. Ownership is important, which is why copyleft is important, and its time to recognize how integral the four freedoms are to the future I think most of us want.

He wasn't talking about actually, physically, owning the robots. He was talking about owning stocks in the companies that make the robots. So that as they get wealthier, so do you.

Until the robots decide to stop feeding their "owners".

Money is a social construct. Power comes from controlling energetic resources, and automation is gradually stripping that control away from humans.

Re: Just own the damn robots

#269

Post by patrickk »

lin_lin wrote: post #206
Waterluvian wrote: post #98

Reads like this are slowly convincing me not to buy into the world of mortgages and debt and to just live the rest of my life paying for everything in cash. I tried to buy a house last year with my wife but the market exploded where I live and suddenly houses were 40% more expensive from last year. So we still rent, which makes me feel incomplete. Like I'm kind of failing my duty of bringing the Canadian Dream to my…

Wow that's some jump. It's the opposite for me in a way, I'm renting and it's killing me to see all that "wasted". A mortgage would cost far less than what rent is, and by paying it off I see that as a type of "investment" i.e. at least I'll four walls around me and my family.

Depends on what type of a property market you're buying into. If you buy at or near the peak, and a year or two later you have a massive mortgage and a property that's worth a fraction of that (knee deep in negative equity), then renting will feel a whole lot better. You might even have some savings to get a deposit on a cheap property.

Re: Just own the damn robots

#270

Post by ForRealsies »

bamboozled wrote: post #202
hectorlorenzo wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly off-topic, but that is the main reason I do not want to have kids: I am not sure I would like the kind of person I would become. Sometimes I am already paralysed by fear when thoughts about my future take a dark turn (relatively often), but at the end of the day it is my well-being (and my wife's) we are talking about, and we are economically independent adults. We could take a hit or two. Throwing little de…

This seems to be a pretty common attitude amongst a lot of people in their late twenties and early thirties I socialise with (who should probably be well into parenthood). Common question seems to be, "Why bring a child into a world facing climate change, potential nuclear war and a lack of prosperity or opportunities for personal growth". Adopting is probably a better option ;)

Your grandma: 6 kids. Your mother: 2 kids. You: 1 cat and an abortion.
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