sideways t1_itjzi4w wrote on October 24, 2022 at 5:11 AM

Reply to comment by _dekappatated in What will you do to survive in the time between not needing to work anymore to survive and today? by wilsonartOffic

Like most tools, it will allow one person to be as productive as many. What the redundant "many" will do to survive is an open question.

_dekappatated t1_itk1dr0 wrote on October 24, 2022 at 5:33 AM

The industrial revolution allowed people to do the work of many, but instead of rampant unemployment more things were produced and created more prosperity. Before then there was no such thing as a middle class. These tools eventually will create even more prosperity. Its not a zero sum game. It increases the size of the pie for everyone.

sideways t1_itk2ldr wrote on October 24, 2022 at 5:48 AM

Yes, that's true and in the long run I'm inclined to think that will be the case again. However, we don't live in the "long run" and there could be a lot of very real suffering in the near term.

Also, it's entirely possible that the speed and scale of AGI driven change may be such that historical lessons won't apply.

sumane12 t1_itkbert wrote on October 24, 2022 at 7:49 AM

If anything, this cost of living crisis most of the world is suffering through right now, gives people an idea of some short term pain we might have to experience before post scarcity. Our leaders are completely reactionary, covid hit and they gave everyone free money and are now dealing with the fallout after the fact. The same will happen as more and more people are displaced due to automation.

sideways t1_itkceau wrote on October 24, 2022 at 8:03 AM

Yeah, it has been an interesting, unintentional trial run. Hopefully the lessons learned can be applied when UBI becomes unavoidable.

sumane12 t1_itkgtzf wrote on October 24, 2022 at 9:11 AM

Yea definitely, if we had the production capabilities to soak up the demand, inflation would not have been an issue.