100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
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Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#2[deleted]
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#3For anyone who hasn't seen this story:
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#4I think there has to be some kind of massive leap before we get to that state, regardless i we'll get creative freedom to do whatever we please and excel in things we might not have been interested in earlier as they had no "economic value".
Obviously its going to be a journey before the masses will get used to not working as they have been all their lives.
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#5Historically speaking, most of the philosophical question never got an answer by philosophy. They just tend to become obsolete as science advances -- and I consider any question regarding strong AI to be half philosophical by nature (100% unemployment can only happen with strong AI, otherwise we'd spend the last 0.0001% or whatever it is and focusing on developing strong AI)
With that in mind, there are a note: from what I've gathered from actual Machine learning and AI researchers, anything that resemble strong AI is not just far away, but ridiculously far away.
On a less tangent point: a lot of our economic system, and assumptions are based on a scarcity of resources (human labor is one of the scarcity). By the time automation could really take hold and realistically take over most of human's work, it seems to me that there are many things to be concern about rather than employment, and they depends on whether the model of economy is a scarcity or an abundance one, and whether it's actually sustainable or not etc.
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#6For anyone who hasn't seen this story: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
Also Iain Banks' Culture novels have this question as an occasional theme (and the main themes are also very interesting, of course).
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#7This whole thing - I can see it coming and am fully convinced that it will. I just can't work out how to leverage that insight for personal benefit (not millions just modest advantage). Feels a little weird for once I'm ahead of the curve & recognise it as such but still can't seem to leverage it. My profession isn't anywhere near AI or even tech so it's a little difficult.
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#8At my last job, something I tried to push unsuccessfully was a company-wide automation initiative.
Imagine a company-wide incentive structure for automation whereby if you automate 90-100% of your job, you receive massive bonuses. If you completely automate your job, the bonus could be the entirety of your annual salary as a single payout. Or perhaps a combination of bonus and equity.
So now you're out of a job. But if you can automate other jobs in the organisation, you also get bonuses.
Eventually the majority of the company becomes automated, hopefully generating the same or greater revenue and value for customers, with less overhead costs. Which is great for any stakeholders who can continue to receive revenues, but terrible for employees. So it would be good to include some kind of equity and/or revenue sharing model. The sell could then be "hey, let's all work together to automate this company, we'll get bonuses for doing so, and when the whole thing is automated we can continue to receive income while sitting on the beach".
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#9Historically speaking, most of the philosophical question never got an answer by philosophy. They just tend to become obsolete as science advances -- and I consider any question regarding strong AI to be half philosophical by nature (100% unemployment can only happen with strong AI, otherwise we'd spend the last 0.0001% or whatever it is and focusing on developing strong AI) With that in mind, there are a note: from…
AI comes up a lot but in my opinion there is no guarantee that it will ever actually exist.
AI is by definition is artificial and the lines between artificial and non-artificial will be blurred very soon as BCIs come around.
If we take all deceased people's brains and throw them in a pool of goop that allows them to talk to each other and connect them to a BCI so that they can communicate with the rest of the world, is that Artificial Intelligence?
I predict that we will have ultra-intelligent humans/transhumans and advanced AI might or might not ever come into existence.
As expected, DARPA is leading most of the BCI research programs at the moment. I'm not sure how I feel about Super Soldiers and modifying humans, that's a huge topic in itself.
Re: 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over
#10I'm happy to see people thinking about this sort of stuff.
I foresee a Constitutional Amendment limiting the amount of computational power any private person or entity can own. Each person, upon birth, would be granted a certain allotment of computational capacity. This computational capacity can be hired out, but you collect it's paycheck. If you take this to the logical extreme, everyone could own the robot that replaces them at their job, and live out their life collecting it's paycheck.
Check out Marshal Brain's "Manna", where the concentration of wealth nightmare scenario is taken to it's logical extreme. (I don't find the scenario very convincing, but the thought to get it there was useful.)