visarga t1_ittgjnj wrote on October 26, 2022 at 4:32 AM

Reply to comment by AdditionalPizza in With all the AI breakthroughs and IT advancements the past year, how do people react these days when you try to discuss the nearing automation and AGI revolution? by AdditionalPizza

Just imagine 25 years ago, could you have predicted the explosion of work related to the internet? There's development, content creation, communications, commerce and education. Practically it's a double of the physical world. It made us more efficient by a large margin and yet here we are, employed with jobs. Even delivery people and taxi drivers get jobs from the internet.

How is that logic "automating even part of a job leads to layoffs" standing up to the test? I think the correct answer is that we scale up work to match the available capacity instead of firing people. Our desires scale up faster than automation or resources.

AdditionalPizza OP t1_itu8qaj wrote on October 26, 2022 at 10:49 AM

>Just imagine 25 years ago, could you have predicted the explosion of work related to the internet?

We knew it would be big, we weren't sure how. But with automation, specifically targeting jobs that are mostly done over the internet first, it isn't especially difficult to imagine those jobs in tech being replaced by new tech. Evolution of tech companies.

If we look at it from the perspective of corporations instead of individuals with morals, it makes sense for companies to want to do these "new" high paying jobs with automation. The age of AI will dwarf the age of the internet. It's not really a good comparison.

>How is that logic "automating even part of a job leads to layoffs" standing up to the test?

We haven't had automation that can do every aspect of a job better than a human. I'm not trying to convince people to join me in panic, I have some anxiety about it, but the absolute disregard and "everything will be fine and life will go on the way it always has" is not a productive mindset. I'm asking you, call it hypothetically if you want, what if you're wrong? Are you so confident you haven't given any other option even a moment of thought?

>Our desires scale up faster than automation or resources.

Except it won't if automation starts scaling anywhere near the rate of technological innovation.

Look, I realize there's those of us that probably worry too much and we sound crazy, but the majority of people probably don't worry enough. You can call it being grounded, but I can call it being unprepared. Even if it's somewhere in the middle, which it hopefully will be, do you personally have any ideas for the mere possibility? What would the best course of action be if a significant amount of people are unemployed? If your job is safe, do you think it's fair if a UBI exists? Would you take UBI if your job was replaced and you had to feed your family? Can you even imagine a world post-scarcity and people not working?