The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by irishcoffee » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

levanten wrote: post #84

r0fl wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does not benefit average Joe now I agree But let’s say we get to ASI. The ai is self owned, ever expanding. It takes over all service jobs, then all labour jobs, the robots create the robots. It lobbies the government, becomes the government Rebuilds all housing with no waste in the process Makes most things available to everyone at no costs, UBI, perfect healthcare, and food, etc Average Joe’s life will be pretty aw…

There is no guarantee that the asi would care about human beings at all. Personally, I can’t see why it would.

This is where "The Matrix" goes from sci-fi to a documentary.

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

#222

Post by deaux » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

automatic6131 wrote: post #183

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idealized future in my option has something like 1/1000th of the current population It’s thermodynamically impossible for 8-10Billon animals that have no satiation reflex and limited coordination capacity to live on a resource limited rock Absolute Best case future is what I wrote in 2025 which is basically humans living in care facilities managed by machines: https://kemendo.com/We%20All%20Slept%20Well.pdf

>The idealized future in my option has something like 1/1000th of the current population Okay! You first though. What, still here?

"You participate in society, how curious"

If they're choosing not to have kids then they are doing their part towards their beliefs.

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

#223

Post by WarcrimeActual » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

bloppe wrote: post #194

jmye wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We’re already there. Your individual labor isn’t enough to make a living unless you subscribe to the altar of a feudal FAANG. This is preposterous. You think you already can't "make a living" without working at a FAANG? Is this a serious post?

For a lot of people on HN, "making a living" means owning property in a VHCOL area.

Correct. This is a space occupied disproportionately by spoiled rich nepo or otherwise kept silver spooned babies.

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

#224

Post by Ekaros » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

pibaker wrote: post #108

CalRobert wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parallel economy could even kinda sorta work except that we made frontier living largely illegal in many places (though I understand you probably could get some cheap land in e.g. Idaho and try to live off it) and the existence of said parallel society represents a clear challenge to capital owners who say trading your labour for their profit is the most sensible way to live.

There is not enough space for 8 billion humans to do "frontier living."

Not to even forget how unstable that sort of living is. A few bad seasons from various causes could really affect population. Just look at history of famines. It kinda works when you have industrialised agriculture in other places to fallback on, but without that it is very risky in long term.

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

#225

Post by pibaker » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

CalRobert wrote: post #192

manofmanysmiles wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always intuitively felt to me like there was enough space, but I am now getting the sense that my intuition here has been wrong. Will you define "frontier living" so I can better see the lack of space ?

I assume they're referring to the inability of small scale agriculture to produce as many calories per acre as our current food system, which also relies heavily on fossil-fuel based imports. Of course, we also have a lot of unnecessary (but tasty!) excess in our current food system too. I think the problem really becomes - what do you do when the current system becomes untenable? If the costs of a "basic" modern lif…

I appreciate the nuanced reply and yes, I do mean that you will not be able to produce as much food as you currently can nor will you be able to do so as reliably as we currently can.

And while you might be able to do it in Ireland — one of the only countries in the world with less people than two hundred years ago — it will likely be impossible to the billions living in far more densely populated countries.

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

#226

Post by deaux » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #48

cglan wrote: post #16

The future (if we keep using money to allocate resources) is something akin to feudalism but worse. If you are born at the bottom you will never rise to the top. It's bleak. Even worse, your labor will not be needed, nor will your intellectual abilities. There will be a few well off people with capital. The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Everyone else will essentially live in a parallel econom…

> The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Which is why Iran bombing a few Western-run data-centers located in the Emirates was cheered by many of the normal people actually living in the West. I’m pretty sure that if somehow Iran were to take out OpenAI’s servers for good that images with the Ayatollah will unironically start to spring up in the same West.

> I’m pretty sure that if somehow Iran were to take out OpenAI’s servers for good that images with the Ayatollah will unironically start to spring up in the same West.

Cute, but that's why they took over TikTok baby, so there's no chance of anything like that happening again.

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

#227

Post by caconym_ » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

pibaker wrote: post #137

poorman wrote: post #110

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.

> When Nick is not at a computer, you can find him out racing sailboats and involved with various entrepreneurial ventures. Says the man who is going to be the feudal lord in GP's scenario…

The man who thinks he's going to be the feudal lord in GGP's scenario.

In GGP's scenario, there isn't much room at the top. :)

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

#228

Post by qwerasdf5 » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

bluefirebrand wrote: post #71

TGower wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How does AI truly benefit the average joe? Automated production of goods and services means more goods and services to go around. From cheaper prices on all of the things people already buy to unlocking new classes of products like actually useful robotic helpers. Increased pace of development and reduced cost will make many niche products economically viable, essentially the maker movement on steroids.

Cheaper prices don't matter at all when no one has any income due to all of the jobs being automated

If 'no one has any income', then prices become 0.

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

#229

Post by atomicnumber3 » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

cglan wrote: post #16

The future (if we keep using money to allocate resources) is something akin to feudalism but worse. If you are born at the bottom you will never rise to the top. It's bleak. Even worse, your labor will not be needed, nor will your intellectual abilities. There will be a few well off people with capital. The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Everyone else will essentially live in a parallel econom…

Luckily electromagnetism is the great equalizer. I'm imagining guerrilla warfare involving giant (in terms of GWh stored) Jerry-rigged capacitors driving electromagnets that are lobbed into places that would be extremely unappreciative surprise recipients of magnetic fields with flux densities measured in full Teslas

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

#230

Post by thrance » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

giacomoforte wrote: post #41

cglan wrote: post #16

The future (if we keep using money to allocate resources) is something akin to feudalism but worse. If you are born at the bottom you will never rise to the top. It's bleak. Even worse, your labor will not be needed, nor will your intellectual abilities. There will be a few well off people with capital. The data centers will be guarded by automatons and drones. Everyone else will essentially live in a parallel econom…

There won't be any well off people because the machines will rule. Humanity will become second to its own creation. There is no future in which a human ruling class will be lording it over superhuman machine intelligence. I mean look at the clowns who run the world today. They won't be able to keep the machines from taking over.

Honestly, I'd rather be ruled by my laptop than the Epstein class.