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100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

hyponymo.us

71–80 of 82 posts

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#71
post #15

With Folded Hands (1947) by Jack Williamson is my favourite vision of such a future I've ever read. From the Dad losing his job to the kids giving up violin because they can't compete with their Humanoid "servants" it captures the sense of futility very well. I think history can be read as a history of human obsolescence. Even the powerful people who thought their values and ideas were important thrown on the scrap h…

>kids giving up violin because they can't compete with their Humanoid "servants" It's an interesting situation to consider in a fictional story, except we already have real-world proof of this NOT happening the way some authors envision it. We already have machines that can beat master players at Chess and it hasn't led to people giving up on chess - not playing it, not learning it.

I agree the original idea is an over-simplification. But the feeling it captures when you do find yourself obsolete in some way is accurate.

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#72
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! Would you mind sharing more about your story?

No, I don't mind. Psychology was always on my radar and few years back I have decided to pursue Masters in that field. This opens lots of new possibilities: practice (after additional studies), ability to conduct tests and evaluate people based on results (you need to be a Psychologist in order to use some of the tools), you can apply knowledge into other fields (e.g. HR / team management / event IT), eventually this…

I think psychology and prostitution will probably be the final careers. Most people care about a human being in the loop for both sex and counseling.

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#73
post #46

Many here say that a political revolution will follow. That is possible, but the oligarchs could equip a foreign legion with no cultural affinity towards the population. Or those that plunder Tolkien for their company names will succeed in their Skynet endeavors. Anduril currently seems like a joke, hopefully it stays that way. On the other hand, the satellite network required for coordinating Skynet is already opera…

Anduril just secured like 8 billion in funding for their giant manufacturing campus. And Palmer seems perfectly capable.

Hopefully we can collectively ban robots for anything regarding policing, though we unfortunately do already use them on humans in SWAT circumstances.

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't mind. Psychology was always on my radar and few years back I have decided to pursue Masters in that field. This opens lots of new possibilities: practice (after additional studies), ability to conduct tests and evaluate people based on results (you need to be a Psychologist in order to use some of the tools), you can apply knowledge into other fields (e.g. HR / team management / event IT), eventually this…

I think psychology and prostitution will probably be the final careers. Most people care about a human being in the loop for both sex and counseling.

Well, that's one of the reasons I decided to go with psychology. Counselling suits me more.

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#76
post #13
post #3

I really can’t wait. I have so many side projects I need to finish and my day job keeps interfering with them.

I worry that day jobs are useful far beyond money for side projects. You do what you don't want all day, but then you are able to feel happy enough to do great work when you go back home to do what you really want.

I actually enjoy my day job. It's just that it's a large part of my day and I feel that I my other interests (restoring old computers, exploring them and how people worked with them, mostly) end up being neglected.

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#77
Ultimately, all wealth is derived from the consumption of the teeming masses.

There is no point to owning a warehouse if no goods flow through it. There is no point to owning vast tracts of farmland if the food it produces is not purchased and eaten. An empty office building has negative value. Etc.

UBI is an interesting idea to deal with such a situation, but is guaranteed to fail because there is enormous incentive for the wealthy to avoid paying their fair share.

So what will happen? Massive wealth destruction, unevenly distributed. What will that cause? The wealthy to go to war against each other.

Your one and only job is to figure out how to avoid becoming collateral damage.

If you make it through to the other side (if anyone makes it through to the other side), your existence will be more highly valued than it is now.

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#79
post #24

If AI can barely replace car drivers or truck drivers, I think developers will unfortunately have to keep writing code. Of course AI made progress in the language realm with chatGPT, but I don't see any advance in the realm of consciousness, general AI, emotions, etc. There was some recent, small progress where the brain of a fly was mapped. But I don't see transverse research made between cognition, psychology, neur…

> Maybe quantum computing will offer new horizons with additional computing power

When somebody starts talking about quantum computing outside cryptography I immediately know that they have no idea what they are talking about. That is because they think quantum computing is a faster general purpose computer, which it definitely is not. Instead it has its own complexity classes [0] and most of the problems we care about in general purpose computing seem to not be in there. This to me strongly suggests that biological brains would not gain any advantage by using quantum computing and are thus very unlikely to do so.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_complexity_theory

Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)

#80
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will you hang the billionaires? It's not like they'll live next door to you instead of on their Billionaire Island with private security. The billionaires can always do what they've always done and pay half the poor people to shoot and oppress the other half if things don't go their way. As long as you keep the people with guns well paid, you're good. Dividing the lower classes and pitting them against each other…

Yes, that was my second scenario. Truthfully, I don't know how it will go down, I can only hope we get a good outcome. In my mind, I still think 100% unemployment would mean a lot of people who live today in relative comfort, and are therefore complacent with oligarchy, would get very mad. Even if bought by billionaires, I doubt they'd retain the same quality of life as when the economy needed them. And I don't see b…

> I still think 100% unemployment would mean a lot of people who live today in relative comfort, and are therefore complacent

My prediction if we get there is that the "AI" will present us with a seemingly 'benevolent' solution.

"AI has solved everything. Climate change. Limited resources. AI can fix it all. Everyone except a select few must stop ... reproducing."

It's like when a large organization wants to reduce headcount and they do it with buyout packages and retirement.

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