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and what's exactly the purpose of that philosophical angle?
It is just a way of saying that you should not read anything into the statement.
Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
81–90 of 224 posts
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
The richest and most powerful will lobby for universal basic income because it will benefit them at some tipping point, where the masses will need to be subsidized to keep the consumption machine running, maybe?
I think the middle class feels safer with the notion that the economy will not survive without them, thus whatever system results must maintain some sort of middle class. I don’t think this is true at all, while not ideal many places continue to operate just fine with a few very rich and everyone else very poor. The consumption machine has a wealth effect which is an artifact of a ponzie economy. This mathematically…
yeah, to bargain one needs strenght, on such scenario, UBI would mostly like benevolence of the powerful to stabilize their power structures. The masses will comply with UBI or not
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If a small group of giant conglomerates are the only companies wealthy enough to build these automated factories So AI can build everything except the factory itself? Sounds like there's still a need for human labor. And if the opposite is true and AI can build the factory, then it's not going to "cost tens of billions of dollars to build"; the factory will be just as cheap as the goods its producing. Literally eve…
Maybe the resources, materials and land is the constraint here. So whoever builds the first one will be able to quickly expand, buy more land and solidify their lead. Land is likely what would cost billions in this specific scenario. If you don't have land or materials then there is nothing your AI can do, because it doesn't have anything to build things from.
high tech "machinery" is the constraint for most capital intensive businesses
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#84[dead]
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#85> Samsung’s 12-inch line utilizes an overhead hoist transport (OHT) system, an automated transport network that operates along tracks installed on the ceiling, to move bundles of 25 wafers called “lots.” On the 8-inch line, however, this transportation is done manually. There is much more market demand for 12-inch wafers, so Samsung has modernized and automated many processes. The 8-inch line, however, is outdated. W…
> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…
>Humanity consists of the few who own all the boxes, living in opulent luxury, and the many who don't and barely subsist
To me that represents lingering inhumanity.
There are still plenty of people around the world who have maintained this high lifestyle proudly since their early ancestors first got into opulent condition. But there are even more descendants who have not been able to maintain a previous level of opulence at all and would do anything to get it back.
Then you've got a whole bigger group who never came close and are even more envious than those who once had luxury. So much of the time it's easy to recognize that improved wealth is a result of fortune one way or another. When you get an aggregate amount of greed focused on manipulating fortunes, the best they can do for themselves is when everyone else ends up barely subsisting.
IIRC, civilization was supposed to bring an end to the barely subsistence thing.
Doesn't look too civil when things trend backward toward medieval.
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If a small group of giant conglomerates are the only companies wealthy enough to build these automated factories So AI can build everything except the factory itself? Sounds like there's still a need for human labor. And if the opposite is true and AI can build the factory, then it's not going to "cost tens of billions of dollars to build"; the factory will be just as cheap as the goods its producing. Literally eve…
Maybe the resources, materials and land is the constraint here. So whoever builds the first one will be able to quickly expand, buy more land and solidify their lead. Land is likely what would cost billions in this specific scenario. If you don't have land or materials then there is nothing your AI can do, because it doesn't have anything to build things from.
I do think in the case where a company is benefiting from the exploitation of limited natural resources (like land) that don't naturally belong to any one person, imposing a tax on that does make sense.
There was a podcast I listened to on this subject "The Plunder of the Commons" which I found really interesting. [1]
That said, we're a long ways away from reaching the point where literally not having anywhere left on the planet to build becomes your primary obstacle to starting a business.
[1]: https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/the-plunder-of-the-com...
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#87I completely misunderstood the title, and wondered before I clicked how it could possibly have reached the front page.
Didn't stop you from clicking...
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#88>Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
I would say they're quite photogenic myself ;)
One of the original advantages of semiconductors over vacuum tubes is that they were built to last.
Tubes were expected to eventually wear out and be replaced sooner or later, sometimes on a regular basis. So they came in sockets and many were very easily user-replaceable.
Other than that, the equipment was usually built to last for decades. It would have been the stupidest thing in the world to get a new radio every 5 or 10 years when all it needed was a new tube or two. And once you had a radio that was satisfying, most people never wanted to buy another radio again. They most often went forward focused on additional types of long-term technology acquisitions, like TV sets and an automobiles with automatic transmission.
Semiconductors made almost all tube equipment obsolete as fast as the expanding variety of devices could be developed, so silicon booms are nothing new. Corresponding bust cycles must also have been endured by semiconductor companies who have prospered over the decades.
The demand for semiconductors is real strong again, especially the more complex and innovative developments.
But as time goes by, the demand for the semiconductors needed to produce products having long-term value is not the demand causing the complaints about overwork.
It's the extreme demand for disposable semiconductors, and the manufactured-for-landfill products that incorporate them, which has been gradually putting more pressure on fabrication workers in the same production facilities where it didn't used to be this bad.
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#89> Samsung’s 12-inch line utilizes an overhead hoist transport (OHT) system, an automated transport network that operates along tracks installed on the ceiling, to move bundles of 25 wafers called “lots.” On the 8-inch line, however, this transportation is done manually. There is much more market demand for 12-inch wafers, so Samsung has modernized and automated many processes. The 8-inch line, however, is outdated. W…
> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…
Where are they going to harvest money from? If people can't work, they can't buy things.
Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking
#90> Samsung’s 12-inch line utilizes an overhead hoist transport (OHT) system, an automated transport network that operates along tracks installed on the ceiling, to move bundles of 25 wafers called “lots.” On the 8-inch line, however, this transportation is done manually. There is much more market demand for 12-inch wafers, so Samsung has modernized and automated many processes. The 8-inch line, however, is outdated. W…
> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…
Kind of like the system we already have with landlords.