io9 
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San Francisco, 9:49 PM
Mon Dec 14
23 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/06/09
This explains everything. #futurism
11/06/09
[theyarecomingfor.us] #futurism
11/06/09
11/07/09
Well, you could still do things like that as a hobby, and not having to depend upon them for a livelihood might make them even more enjoyable.
Not that I really expect this sort of transition could happen w/o a great deal of suffering in the short term.
-Kle. #futurism
11/06/09
While it's fun to believe that socialism and central planning would work if only you were smart enough, I think any economic system is full of perverse incentives, emergent properties, and irrational consumers, all of which conspire to make it fail.
I also don't believe free markets actually exist, although in theory if they did exist I 'd like to think they could work.
I think it's a lot more complex than either the capitalists or the socialists would like to believe. As hard as it is to believe, what we do now may be the best compromise. Although we do keep learning where the flaws are.
Disclaimer: the only connection I have with economics is that once Mrs. Overclock wins big at Powerball, I'm going back to school to study it.
Meanwhile, call me Sol-Terrasa Chip Lord Overclock da'Ohio. #futurism
11/06/09
Looking over all the responses to this article, I'd have to say your's is the best. Economic systems or any system involving sapient minds are inherently perverse. #futurism
11/06/09
11/07/09
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11/07/09
- everyone has to work for a living (otherwise it's socialism), but
- all labor and probably most of the lower level white collar jobs have been automated away, so
- where does that leave the people that don't or can't work in the remaining intellectual-labor market?
When we talk about the destruction of the middle class, the mechanism though it occurs is via the loss of those very jobs which are labor intensive or lower level white collar that have either been automated or outsourced.
So I think a post-scarcity economy (if it can occur at all) is necessarily socialistic.
Disclaimer: I am not an economist. I'm just trying to understand things. #futurism
11/07/09
Why do you say that? Every able person is supposed to work under socialism too, the idea of most people not working doesn't really fit either contemporary capitalism or contemporary socialism. And socialism implies a large government bureaucracy to distribute money and goods, but that wouldn't need to be the case under post-scarcity--everyone could just have their own fab lab or nanotech factory to build most needed goods, just like we have personal computers that can make copies of mp3s for ourselves. #futurism
11/08/09
11/08/09
11/06/09
Work for survival's sake is an insult to human dignity. Work for the pleasure of creation, on the other hand, is the highest possible human aspiration. #futurism
11/06/09
11/06/09
Because the human race wouldn't get to enjoy the resulting wealth. A small percentage of people would. The people with power and money would. Just look at the state of the world. How many children die every year because of dirty water? We have technology that could provide clean drinking water, it just doesn't make sense financially or politically to provide the resources to these people. If you are not adding to their power base, you have no value. If we did have machines that did ever thing for us, most of us would be left to die. #futurism
11/06/09
Ummm, wasn't this how the BSGverse got into all the trouble with the Toasters in the first place?
Besides, if AI's ever take over the economy, you can bet they're not going to be all friendly and Al Gore-y about it after browning our toast for us all these centuries. Oh hell naw. Expect a big honkin' Robot Foot up your gullet when THAT day comes. #futurism
11/06/09
i think the mentality that everyone would be a manager or a scientist or a researcher or any number of other white color positions if enough of them were avaialble and there were no monitary barriers to entry is a fantasy. some individuals simply are not capable of that kind of work. who would pay for the robots that sustain these individuals in this hypothetical future? #futurism
11/06/09
The technology is hopelessly outdated but he skewers the bureaucratic manager culture. #futurism
11/06/09
some people are better than you at doing/thinking whatever...some people are not good at anything...
I think that's why I've never been able to fully accept the Star Trek universe...what the hell does everybody DO all day? #futurism
11/06/09
Poverty, soul-killing monotony (have you ever worked a factory job?), and despair at one's place in an arbitrary social hierarchy tend to blunt people's abilities.
If everybody were valued equally from the get-go, regardless of their usefulness or productivity, I think you'd find that people would do what they loved to do, and even if they were no good at it, they would get better--they would live up to much greater potential than they are currently given credit for.
It's this notion of measuring the utility of a person (or nature, or whatever) which is dehumanizing and greatly aggravates all these social differences. It's a holdover from feudalism which our culture has yet to escape.
If you compare that to most hunter-gatherer cultures, where everybody has roughly the same skills (though people are certainly better at some things than others), but there's no permanent power structure; things tend to be fairly egalitarian both politically and economically. #futurism
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11/06/09
Also, he sounds like every program manager I've ever had. "We'll make all the decisions and let the peons do it." #futurism
11/06/09
11/06/09
For some reason, the project ended badly.
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11/06/09
You know, the FAP bots will be leading the charge. #futurism
11/06/09
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11/06/09
That would be fucking stupid. We can already make plenty of things that behave the way human beings do.
You and I, we've got all kinds of ridiculous atavisms in the way our brains work, that are designed to keep us from being eaten by tigers, or bully us into being proper members of society.
Why would you build the necessary neurochemical conditions into an AI that cause boredom? Resentment? Frustration? What would be the point of that?
12/04/09
An AI is an artificial INTELLIGENCE. Meaning 1) it's man-made or even AI-made, and 2) it's intelligent on its own. Meaning it was not programmed with its intelligence or abilities, they would be for the most part, learned. As soon as it is programmed, it's no longer an intelligence.
How do we know an AI wouldn't be able to get bored? We haven't even created an ACTUAL AI in the first place.
What we call AI today are just simple or complex programs made to act like they are intelligent. I can program something that seems to get bored or tired, but it's not an AI, it's a program.
There are people that don't exhibit boredom or resentment or frustration. Because they "learned" to be that way. Sure, some of it is chemical, I won't argue that. But a lot of how we act is learned.
11/06/09