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The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

danielhomola.com

201–210 of 435 posts

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are ai and robots other than excess labor, waiting to be allocated? Why does the wealth have to come from the meat bags?

Who is going to buy the stuff that the AI and robots produce, then? What will the point be of producing all this stuff?

What is the point of producing all this stuff now?

Historically production was transactional. You give me something, I give you something. But along the way the average Joe ran out of things to offer in return. Businesses give, but increasingly fail to receive in kind. Apple, for example, produced in excess of $50 billion dollars worth of value that they've never been able to get anything in return for. In other words, they have effectively given away $50 billion dollars worth of stuff away for free and have shown no signs of wanting to stop.

At least there is no direct transactional value. There is social value. When you've given away $50 billion dollars worth of things, the masses start to idol you. That is why people, like those who oversee Apple, are willing to produce all that stuff. You get social access not afforded to the average Joe. You can do stupid Epstien-style crap without repercussions. You get to live a different life even when you aren't directly getting anything in return. That, no doubt, will remain the point of producing stuff in the future.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#202
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a gh for a $100 stringer missile last week. I often wonder if I will miss the stable tyranny of American capitalism if we descend back into warring nation states defended by cheap autonomous munitions.

they will get poor people to die fighting each other, as it works today.

Service for citizenship, stationed along the border walls and manning really big fucking guns seems to be the place my brain always goes to in these sorts of conversations.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was flagged for being clearly botted, and I don't just mean LLM-generated (although it is also that). When I posted on and flagged the old submission, I noted that it had over two dozen upvotes in 15 minutes, despite the essay having a helpful "54 min read" indicator at the top. I truly do not believe the upvotes on these submissions are organic, and it really destroys my faith in HN that this was restored when th…

I upvoted this without reading. For me sometimes the article is just the spark for a far more interesting set of comments that overshadow it. And it is really that I am voting for.

That is certainly an interesting perspective.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#204

The sims are really well done, the dynasty simulator especially. You can actually stress-test the argument instead of just nodding along. Appreciate the craft. I have issues with the economics though. The income model is calibrated from three separate literatures that were never estimated together. Different samples, different decades, different identification strategies. Then the big move, βIQ drops to 0.10, βW jump…

I bounced off of this article because I didn't like the conclusion, then provided myself a rationalization that it was probably mostly AI generated. What inspired you to engage with the article more deeply? You agree with the conclusion, but not with any of the supporting arguments.

I'm also fascinated by your compliment on of the dynasty simulator, which I found completely inscrutable. What kind of background knowledge would help understand it, economics training?

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#205

"The window described above is not a metaphor. It is an arithmetic deadline...The window is not a metaphor for someone at your coordinates. It is a number." 9 to 1 bet that this is written by AI (perhaps proving the writer's point that he is being displaced). I think AI is great, but I wish people would just post the prompt they gave instead of the full length decompressed essay. Much more efficient information trans…

I think it was AI-assisted at the very least. Nothing wrong with that, but it's always a good idea to make another pass to identify and remove LLM "tropes".

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am going to say this for all the people thinking like this. This attitude will get you nowhere in life. It historically never has and in the future it never will.

Hmmm ... there is definitely historical precedence for the article's assertions. There is also precedence for what happens when such a big wealth imbalance is present (spoiler: it's a revolution). This article is methodical in its points. Your retort reads like an easily dismissed hot take.

The articles argument is fine, but it takes as an axiom that AI is better right now at much cognitive work. I haven't found that to be true in the tasks I've looked at.

It's certainly cheaper and faster, so there's potential for it to unlock more demand but I'm sceptical that current models will replace a large fraction of knowledge work.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#208
post #178

> IQ → credentials → income → heritable wealth This doesn't make much sense. Lots of people with high IQ don't have high income because they were born in the wrong country.

Relative to the peers in their own country they usually do. Globally, yeah people get shit hands. That is why doctors leave their countries, go through the trouble to relicense and practice in the US.

> Relative to the peers in their own country they usually do

What about people born in the wrong neighbourhood or even the wrong family.

I have a hard time beleiving IQ is a strong predictor of income. Anecdotally I personally know a lot of dumb people who make a lot of money and intelligent people who don't.

If anything I'd say social skills are probably a better predictor of income.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#209
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to drop off my health insurance when the bill hit $4,850.24/month. Millions did the same. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/aca-enrollees-uninsured.html

That sucks and I hope congress gets their shit together soon, but there are a lot of non-FAANG companies that offer insurance.

That money black hole hits companies too. A $50k/year job typically can't throw in $60k in healthcare benefits.

Re: The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI

#210
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's right -- the best way to succeed within a system is to hustle as hard as you can, and definitely don't stop to question the system itself.

Better than those who just want to burn the system down with no real plan for what comes next, and unable to comprehend the inevitable bloodshed of the 'glorious revolution' that they crave.

You think you are describing the Bolsheviks, but your description is equally fitting for those who want to abolish human labor without providing people alternative ways to make a living.

And no, hand waving about "UBI" doesn't count unless they start actually doing the politics required to implement UBI.

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