Good essay, John. I strongly dislike AI for many reasons and I won't waste time listing them, but many people are prone to be lazy and self-indulgent, right? Look at those people now who try to use government assistance as a way of life- how well does that work out for them, their families, and our culture? In Star Trek TOS there is a planet of androids who take care of people and prevent them from injury by disallowing activities they deem to be potentially harmful. Kirk and crew have to find a way to escape that protection, as the androids seek to expand across the galaxy to save more humans from themselves. AI driven creatures are not gods and can never be allowed to become our source, lest we go from turning to and worshiping the one Jehovah God, to soulless machines who definitely will not hold the keys to eternal life in a glorified body. My speculation is that the Father will put a block on the ability of AI, or corrupt it somehow, like He did when He smashed the Tower of Babel and dispersed the human race into many languages and cultures. For the same reasons I'm confident that He has an insoluble monopoly on time travel as well.
I hear what you’re saying, but…didn’t people say the same thing about mechanical looms, factories more generally, automation of the factories, computers, and the internet? And isn’t the reality that—while jobs were certainly eliminated—they were substituted and more by new jobs that no one even imagined when they made those predictions?
Also…if indeed robots are going to do all the heavy lifting…wouldn’t that imply a significant alleviation of material scarcity? Obviously this wouldn’t be the Federation’s matter transmuters, but…it just seems like we could actually have something resembling a UBI or a negative income tax, thus allowing a subsistence livelihood for anyone who no longer had a job—whether by choice or by involuntary displacement.
Again…not saying you’re wrong. But I can’t help but ask.
I think AI/AI Driven Robots are going to break that old way things worked where you'd have some advance in an area, like let's say the Cotton gin, and suddenly far few workers would be needed for Cotton and they'd move on to somewhere else.
I think AI/AI driven robots are completely different because they will be the first product in history that will create that kind of revolution across so many industries at once and eventually ALL INDUSTRIES. This is something fundamentally different than anything that has come before
As to a UBI or something else to pay the bills, I absolutely think that CAN be done. In fact, Elon Musk believes (Possibly correctly) that we could be heading to a world of MASS ABUNDANCE. I think the difficulty is getting from where we are now to there when the people bringing in almost unfathomable amounts of money understandably aren't that interested in doing it. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it also isn't a problem that automatically gets solved in a way that makes most people happy.
Fair enough. I think I'm just more optimistic about this outcome than most. And if I'm wrong...? Well, good chance I'll be either pushing up daisies or settling into my new apartment in Musk City on Mars... ;-)
I agree with much of what you say although I do think the worst fears are overblown. As for the treaty, that seems like the natural approach, but I all but guarantee that the Chinese and Russians, both of whom care little for their people, would immediately violate the treaty to take advantage of America and the West while liberals will file lawsuit after lawsuit to force America and the West to comply with the treaty. That’s a recipe for national/civilizational suicide.
Good essay, John. I strongly dislike AI for many reasons and I won't waste time listing them, but many people are prone to be lazy and self-indulgent, right? Look at those people now who try to use government assistance as a way of life- how well does that work out for them, their families, and our culture? In Star Trek TOS there is a planet of androids who take care of people and prevent them from injury by disallowing activities they deem to be potentially harmful. Kirk and crew have to find a way to escape that protection, as the androids seek to expand across the galaxy to save more humans from themselves. AI driven creatures are not gods and can never be allowed to become our source, lest we go from turning to and worshiping the one Jehovah God, to soulless machines who definitely will not hold the keys to eternal life in a glorified body. My speculation is that the Father will put a block on the ability of AI, or corrupt it somehow, like He did when He smashed the Tower of Babel and dispersed the human race into many languages and cultures. For the same reasons I'm confident that He has an insoluble monopoly on time travel as well.
I hear what you’re saying, but…didn’t people say the same thing about mechanical looms, factories more generally, automation of the factories, computers, and the internet? And isn’t the reality that—while jobs were certainly eliminated—they were substituted and more by new jobs that no one even imagined when they made those predictions?
Also…if indeed robots are going to do all the heavy lifting…wouldn’t that imply a significant alleviation of material scarcity? Obviously this wouldn’t be the Federation’s matter transmuters, but…it just seems like we could actually have something resembling a UBI or a negative income tax, thus allowing a subsistence livelihood for anyone who no longer had a job—whether by choice or by involuntary displacement.
Again…not saying you’re wrong. But I can’t help but ask.
I think AI/AI Driven Robots are going to break that old way things worked where you'd have some advance in an area, like let's say the Cotton gin, and suddenly far few workers would be needed for Cotton and they'd move on to somewhere else.
I think AI/AI driven robots are completely different because they will be the first product in history that will create that kind of revolution across so many industries at once and eventually ALL INDUSTRIES. This is something fundamentally different than anything that has come before
As to a UBI or something else to pay the bills, I absolutely think that CAN be done. In fact, Elon Musk believes (Possibly correctly) that we could be heading to a world of MASS ABUNDANCE. I think the difficulty is getting from where we are now to there when the people bringing in almost unfathomable amounts of money understandably aren't that interested in doing it. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it also isn't a problem that automatically gets solved in a way that makes most people happy.
Fair enough. I think I'm just more optimistic about this outcome than most. And if I'm wrong...? Well, good chance I'll be either pushing up daisies or settling into my new apartment in Musk City on Mars... ;-)
I agree with much of what you say although I do think the worst fears are overblown. As for the treaty, that seems like the natural approach, but I all but guarantee that the Chinese and Russians, both of whom care little for their people, would immediately violate the treaty to take advantage of America and the West while liberals will file lawsuit after lawsuit to force America and the West to comply with the treaty. That’s a recipe for national/civilizational suicide.