Taliesin_Chris
Taliesin_Chris t1_j6u7fwm wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in The steam engine changed the world. Artificial intelligence could destroy it. - The Boston Globe by GlobeOpinion
All of the above is probably the answer. A very basic UBI that lets people work more of a gig economy without falling through the cracks. Capitalism has an entry fee, and we'll have to cover people for it.
We'll probably start lowering retirement age as well. It'll be expensive to do, but getting people out of the work force will be needed and this will be a good way to do it.
Making college mandatory and having jobs start later for people will be another way to make it work. No more "We hire 15 year olds!" as some kind of weird brag (McDonalds, I'm looking at you).
And then, finally, 4 or 3 day work weeks, or 1/2 day work days, or maybe both.
The jobs themselves will feel far more 'gig' ish. You might sign on for a year, or a season, or something like that. Then take some time off to enjoy what you made supplemented by UBI, and then back to another job.
It'll be lots of cuts in lots of places. Conservatives will say that "That won't work" individually to all those things, but no one is saying any of those things solves the problem alone. It's a completely systemic solution that requires rethinking about a job, it's value to us as a human being, and maybe a little value on work we do for ourselves and not making someone else rich for a while.
Taliesin_Chris t1_j6u61ju wrote
Reply to comment by marketlurker in The steam engine changed the world. Artificial intelligence could destroy it. - The Boston Globe by GlobeOpinion
My, probably naive, hope is that when everyone knows 'someone' who's been displaced the reality will set in. Probably around 25% unemployment. Your job can't be your worth. People's living can't be tied to jobs. We do that because society needed jobs at one point in our history... that's changing. Now, it really doesn't need them as much as it did. We keep them because we're scared to change that mentality, but really... if the stuff doesn't need to get done by a person, why are we taking a person's time to do it?
The jobs that need to be done by people will still find people to do them. Probably more on a gig economy for that, but yeah... it won't look like it looks today. It can't. People who think jobs are defining in a person's life will have to adapt. Until then, some people are going to hurt. It will get better, but initially, no... it won't.
Taliesin_Chris t1_j6tl4sm wrote
Reply to comment by L00525324 in The steam engine changed the world. Artificial intelligence could destroy it. - The Boston Globe by GlobeOpinion
AI will replace all jobs, but not ALL jobs. As in, we'll need less programmers, but not 0 programmers. We'll need less office staff, but not 0 office staff. Less managers, less everything.
It doesn't matter if there are still some jobs if there aren't enough jobs. We'll need a plan. Do we lower # of hours full time is so more people can work? UBI? Something else?
Taliesin_Chris t1_j43gnrh wrote
Reply to A wormhole that connects two points in space where the strength of gravity is different would let you violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics. by chancellortobyiii
Gravity will attempt to pull the wormhole shut. But lets say you overcome that by putting some exotic matter into it so that keeps it open.
The effect of the ground level wormhole will pull at things near it on the other side. So if you say, threw a ball through it, as it leaves the one at ground level, it would start 'falling' back towards the open wormhole because the effect of gravity is affecting things on that side as well.
If it had enough momentum to break free from that side and pass downward, it still would have been slowed until the 'typical' gravity of the earth took it over.
Another, more dramatic, way of thinking about it is: If you opened one side at ground level, and another side near a black hole, the black hole would pull the earth into it.
Taliesin_Chris t1_j6ub69i wrote
Reply to comment by marketlurker in The steam engine changed the world. Artificial intelligence could destroy it. - The Boston Globe by GlobeOpinion
No... money provides the exchange for things to keep your body and soul together, and we 'often' get money from jobs. But not just from jobs. Some people inherit the money, some people use the money to make money, some people own something worth charging for. Jobs are only one way of doing it. We get hung up on that reality because for most of us it is a job that does it, but we can find other ways to do it.
Maybe working at a company earns you shares, and you make money when that company makes money. Then when you've done enough, you let that do it for you.
That's just one idea. We'll hammer it out. Not immediately as people need to realize this isn't a joke, it isn't going away, and we can't just make people work jobs that don't need to exist because that does not actually create a fulfilling life. It does the opposite.