The Education of a Doomer
borretti.me
The Education of a Doomer
1–10 of 66 posts
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#2[deleted]
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#3The issue with devaluation of human work is that the automation doesn't have to be real. All you have to do is make nearly all employers agree that a particular job can pay less.
And that's the case today - new AI being a sufficient programmer replacement is enough of a statement to do layoffs with record profits without impact on stock prices.
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#4I'm not sure what happens (I think no one does), but with every other technology, I can opt-out if I don't want to use it.
Even if I get unemployed, I don't see how I can opt-out when it comes to everyone everywhere using it.
Governments historically have considered humans as assets - it's even called "human capital", and they require us for tax revenue and to run the state. What happens when we aren't needed? Even if the AI is magically aligned to the state, I don't see how I end up the winning side of that. It's not like we're getting a voice in how this is shoved down our throats today. Why would it get any better when AGI can do everything humans can do? What still gives us a voice in the world?
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#5I’ve never had this worry. When I was funemployed last year, I spent my time reading books and writing code and hanging out with friends. If the future is an infinite UBI-funded vacation, I know what I’ll do. “Before the Singularity, read books and throw house parties; after the singularity, etc.”
yeah it's obvious the author has a really high IQ who can keep himself busy with intellectual pursuits and a nice social life of other smart people . His experience will not map to the general population, who find themselves with idle time. Also, a barebones UBI will be hardly sufficient to cover other expenses unless the AI also solves housing, healthcare, insurance, childcare, transportation etc.
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#6One thing the doom debate tends to skip: the failures that hurt people right now are boring, not exotic. I spend my time probing AI systems that are already deployed and talking to real users, and the actual failure modes are mundane - a system that reassures when it should escalate, follows its script while the situation changes, sounds confident the whole way through. No superintelligence required, just an ordinary model given authority and no tripwires. If the conversation centered on the systems already in production instead of hypothetical future ones, a lot of the disagreement about timelines would matter less. The dangerous stuff is already here; it's just unglamorous.
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#7I’ve never had this worry. When I was funemployed last year, I spent my time reading books and writing code and hanging out with friends. If the future is an infinite UBI-funded vacation, I know what I’ll do. “Before the Singularity, read books and throw house parties; after the singularity, etc.” yeah it's obvious the author has a really high IQ who can keep himself busy with intellectual pursuits and a nice social…
For those with low IQ like me, there's video games, movies, piracy, parties, and hiking.
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#8> if humans are economically useless, the state does not need them. Why pay out UBI to people who have neither economic nor political power?
Forgive me if I'm naïve. But wouldn't people just vote for UBI in this case?
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#9> if humans are economically useless, the state does not need them. Why pay out UBI to people who have neither economic nor political power? Forgive me if I'm naïve. But wouldn't people just vote for UBI in this case?
Good luck having votes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Nicaraguan_general_electi...
Re: The Education of a Doomer
#10> if humans are economically useless, the state does not need them. Why pay out UBI to people who have neither economic nor political power? Forgive me if I'm naïve. But wouldn't people just vote for UBI in this case?
Ok, then back up a step: Why distribute the power to vote on the basis of people’s fundamental equal dignity instead of descending into warlord-driven feudalism?