You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass • Hacker News Board

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#21

Post by HotGarbage » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:52 AM UTC

vaughands wrote: post #8

This post seems to be haphazardly proposing that big tech will inevitably make everyone's lives miserable. And by working for them, you are enabling this. It offers no constructive alternative and the author (yes, I know who he is) seems to have no issue with Google hosting their email. It's hard to take this too seriously (even if there is some legitimate worry here)

Big tech is making everyone's life miserable: social media, advertising, surveillance.

By working for them you are enabling this.

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#22

Post by jofzar » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:52 AM UTC

kaliqt wrote: post #15

vaughands wrote: post #8

This post seems to be haphazardly proposing that big tech will inevitably make everyone's lives miserable. And by working for them, you are enabling this. It offers no constructive alternative and the author (yes, I know who he is) seems to have no issue with Google hosting their email. It's hard to take this too seriously (even if there is some legitimate worry here)

It posits that the tools at their disposal will be far more powerful and wide reaching than just Gmail or even modern social networks. The good ol' AGI and then ASI singularity everyone likes to talk about. To be fair, it is possible.

I don't believe "true" agi/asi will happen, but I totally believe if a company theoretically invented they would immediately shut all API's and then go for software market dominance in every category.

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#23

Post by shomp » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:52 AM UTC

kaliqt wrote: post #10

d1sxeyes wrote: post #3

Hard to take seriously from a guy who has Facebook, Google, and Twitter on his CV.

I fail to see your point. He's very well traveled is all.

traveling more would inspire one to think positively of capitalism, rather than the reverse. to quote andrew carnegie roughly, the status quo has always been misery for everyone, and just recently have we begun to extricate ourselves from it. not to mention that it is sheer derangement of luxury to have plenty of funding for one's own family, and yet vocally dissuade others from taking the same steps, for some "end game theoretical" that certainly won't arrive in single digit generations

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#24

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:52 AM UTC

vaughands wrote: post #8

This post seems to be haphazardly proposing that big tech will inevitably make everyone's lives miserable. And by working for them, you are enabling this. It offers no constructive alternative and the author (yes, I know who he is) seems to have no issue with Google hosting their email. It's hard to take this too seriously (even if there is some legitimate worry here)

[deleted]

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#25

Post by XorNot » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:54 AM UTC

pu_pe wrote: post #9

This is a real threat that is not discussed enough. If labor could be completely automated, then the value and political power of workers tends to zero.

I feel like the people who post this sentiment have never done any plumbing, electrical wiring or really just any sort of actual creative manual labor.

Show me the robot that can plumb a new sink in, or brick up an old doorway... Because I'd really like to buy it, those things are hard and time consuming!

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#26

Post by vaughands » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:54 AM UTC

kaliqt wrote: post #15

vaughands wrote: post #8

This post seems to be haphazardly proposing that big tech will inevitably make everyone's lives miserable. And by working for them, you are enabling this. It offers no constructive alternative and the author (yes, I know who he is) seems to have no issue with Google hosting their email. It's hard to take this too seriously (even if there is some legitimate worry here)

It posits that the tools at their disposal will be far more powerful and wide reaching than just Gmail or even modern social networks. The good ol' AGI and then ASI singularity everyone likes to talk about. To be fair, it is possible.

It's vogue on HN to sometimes criticize critically so I want to try and be as constructive as possible:

I work for one of these companies. I also have pay bills to pay. I'd like to understand what a real, good alternative is.

Frontier labs such as Google DeepMind are not just going to shutter their doors because 10% of the peons dropped their jobs. I believe, at least, that we should be demanding political accountability and safeguards for society. I only get to live once: if I am to spend it for social change, I best maximize by expected return.

And quitting a job in a capitalist society probably has negative return overall.

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#27

Post by uh_uh » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:56 AM UTC

pu_pe wrote: post #9

This is a real threat that is not discussed enough. If labor could be completely automated, then the value and political power of workers tends to zero.

If you own AGI, human workers are worse than zero. They become an active threat that can kill you.

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#28

Post by roenxi » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:56 AM UTC

mmaunder wrote: post #19

The premise is economically incoherent because labor is not a single task category that technology can delete. It is the input that continuously reconstitutes itself around whatever remains scarce, valuable and socially demanded as productivity rises. This is the lump of labor fallacy- the belief that there’s a fixed amount of economically valuable work that technology and capital can eliminate through automation or…

And it isn't like people can't do still everything they could do yesterday. There are just more and better options. Economically AI is no particular threat to the median human and even knowledge workers are still going to have fine lives. Maybe not as knowledge workers.

The real risk here is the military implications of pairing AI and robots. If the army doesn't need lots of people then there is a real problem. But robotics will take a long time to get there even in an optimistic case. Labour will still have value for a long time to come.

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#29

Post by shomp » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:56 AM UTC

pu_pe wrote: post #9

This is a real threat that is not discussed enough. If labor could be completely automated, then the value and political power of workers tends to zero.

capitalism has always moved in the direction of automation, yielding booming progress and prosperity for much of mankind. the technological comforts we have today far exceed those of a thousand years ago, no one can dispute. but at some point, if there are no more jobs due to "full automation" then the promise of capitalism bringing most people out of poverty will start to fall short. it's a real question, what do we do then? short of adapting, as we always have, i don't see any viable alternatives. OP recommending not playing at all is peak derangement divorced from reality imo

Re: You have three minutes to escape the perpetual underclass

#30

Post by ares623 » Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 8:57 AM UTC

d1sxeyes wrote: post #3

Hard to take seriously from a guy who has Facebook, Google, and Twitter on his CV.

Will you take it seriously from someone who _hasn't_ worked at those companies?

It's a realistic take. I personally wouldn't absolve him of his contribution though.