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As Rocks May Think

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Re: As Rocks May Think

#31

Post by denkmoon »

munificent wrote: post #4

> We are entering a golden age in which all computer science problems seem to be tractable, insomuch as we can get very useful approximations of any computable function. Alternatively, we are entering a dark age where the billionaires who control most of the world's capital will no longer need to suffer the indignity of paying wages to humans in order to generate more revenue from information products and all of the…

A labouring proletariat with bread and circuses is a distracted proletariat. Billionaires are still flesh and blood, much like Louis XVI and Charles I.

Re: As Rocks May Think

#32

Post by AndrewKemendo »

denkmoon wrote: post #31
munificent wrote: post #4

> We are entering a golden age in which all computer science problems seem to be tractable, insomuch as we can get very useful approximations of any computable function. Alternatively, we are entering a dark age where the billionaires who control most of the world's capital will no longer need to suffer the indignity of paying wages to humans in order to generate more revenue from information products and all of the…

A labouring proletariat with bread and circuses is a distracted proletariat. Billionaires are still flesh and blood, much like Louis XVI and Charles I.

Are you actually doing anything in that direction or is this “tough guy on the internet?”

I see literally zero people doing the equivalent of “breaking the factories” like the luddites attempted

Re: As Rocks May Think

#33

Post by AndrewKemendo »

keybored wrote: post #13
Centigonal wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you're being downvoted. This is a topic worth discussing. Like every previous invention that improves productivity (cf. copiers, steam power, the wheel), this wave of AI is making certain forms of labor redundant, creating or further enriching a class of industrialists, and enabling individuals to become even more productive. This could create a golden age, or a dark age -- most likely, it will…

People fought back. Who is fighting back now? Capitalists have openly gloated in public about wanting to replace at least one profession. That was months or years ago. What are people doing in response? Discussing incentive structures? SC coders paid hundreds of thousands a year are just letting this happen to them. “Nothing to be done about another 15K round of layoffs, onlookers say”

This is exactly it, nobody is going to do anything about it

Re: As Rocks May Think

#34

Post by denkmoon »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #32
denkmoon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A labouring proletariat with bread and circuses is a distracted proletariat. Billionaires are still flesh and blood, much like Louis XVI and Charles I.

Are you actually doing anything in that direction or is this “tough guy on the internet?” I see literally zero people doing the equivalent of “breaking the factories” like the luddites attempted

We're not there yet. The luddite movement formed and acted over decades not years.

Do you not see the overwhelmingly negative response to AI produced goods and services from the average westerner?

Re: As Rocks May Think

#35

Post by zozbot234 »

keybored wrote: post #13
Centigonal wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you're being downvoted. This is a topic worth discussing. Like every previous invention that improves productivity (cf. copiers, steam power, the wheel), this wave of AI is making certain forms of labor redundant, creating or further enriching a class of industrialists, and enabling individuals to become even more productive. This could create a golden age, or a dark age -- most likely, it will…

People fought back. Who is fighting back now? Capitalists have openly gloated in public about wanting to replace at least one profession. That was months or years ago. What are people doing in response? Discussing incentive structures? SC coders paid hundreds of thousands a year are just letting this happen to them. “Nothing to be done about another 15K round of layoffs, onlookers say”

> Capitalists have openly gloated in public about wanting to replace at least one profession. That was months or years ago. What are people doing in response?

Great, let them try. They'll find out that AI makes the human SC coder more productive not less. Everyone knows that AI has little to nothing to do with the layoffs, it's just a silly excuse to give their investors better optics. Nobody wants to admit that maybe they've overhired a bit after the whole COVID mess.

Re: As Rocks May Think

#36

Post by munificent »

zozbot234 wrote: post #25
beeflet wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike every previous invention that improves productivity, It is making every form of labor redundant.

AIUI, in most lines of work AI is being used to replace/augment pointless paper-pushing jobs. It doesn't seem to be all that useful for real, productive work. Coding may be a limited exception, but even then the AI's job is to be basically a dumb (if sometimes knowledgeable) code monkey. You still need to do all the architecture and detailed design work if you want something maintainable at the end of the day.

> It doesn't seem to be all that useful for real, productive work.

Even the most pointless bullshit job accomplishes a societal function by transferring wages from a likely wealthy large corporation to a individual worker who has bills to pay.

Eliminating bullshit jobs might be good from an economic efficiency perspective, but people still gotta eat.

Re: As Rocks May Think

#37

Post by munificent »

drdaeman wrote: post #30
measurablefunc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the only thing us plebeians can hope for. When all is said & done the people at the top are the only ones that can truly create wealth w/ their innovative genius. The rest of us should just shut up & follow their orders for our own good.

That would be a thing if wealth would correlate with innovation. I’m afraid the correlation is inverse in way too many cases.

This comment thread is being sarcastic.

Re: As Rocks May Think

#38

Post by AndrewKemendo »

denkmoon wrote: post #34
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you actually doing anything in that direction or is this “tough guy on the internet?” I see literally zero people doing the equivalent of “breaking the factories” like the luddites attempted

We're not there yet. The luddite movement formed and acted over decades not years. Do you not see the overwhelmingly negative response to AI produced goods and services from the average westerner?

So, no then. Like I said upstream, nobody is going to anything about it.

At a certain point it’s too late.

Re: As Rocks May Think

#39

Post by tejohnso »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #32
denkmoon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A labouring proletariat with bread and circuses is a distracted proletariat. Billionaires are still flesh and blood, much like Louis XVI and Charles I.

Are you actually doing anything in that direction or is this “tough guy on the internet?” I see literally zero people doing the equivalent of “breaking the factories” like the luddites attempted

I think we'd need a lot more suffering before we have enough people to start that kind of action. If we see 35% unemployment over the next 5 years with insufficient time to adjust, then maybe the pitchforks come out.
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