according to many nerds, humans won't be at the forefront of anything, due to AI, and machine learning. being "leader of the free world," and other such statements, are merely, sales pitches from lawyers who get elected into office, and so called journalists. Stumbling after people in the EU like Juncker, for example is not in our interest. Plus, to be honest, I wouldn't trade Cincinnati for Malmo, Fika notwithstanding. Call it cultural programming.
-----Original Message----- From: Telmo Menezes <te...@telmomenezes.com> To: everything-list <everything-list@googlegroups.com> Sent: Wed, Jun 21, 2017 6:03 am Subject: Re: AI and social destabilization I completely agree with you for a change. The job-centered society is already looking silly, and will soon look like medieval superstition. I am waiting for a wave of politicians that talk about "destroying jobs" instead of "creating jobs", but I won't hold my breath. I think that the current state of affairs rests on two things, that are very hard to break: - A global financial system that only knows how to redistribute wealth through employment -- but is becoming worse and worse even at doing that; - A set of social norms that makes self-worth dependent on employment. There are no jobs for everyone anymore, not by a long shot. This is already happening, and the jobs are nor coming back. We have now entered a silly situation where bullshit jobs are created to prevent social collapse. This is not only silly but also tragic. We create prisons for each other for no good reason at all. This is extra silly in corporate environments, where people are pressured to "work" more and more hours. It's all mindless virtue signalling. Of course (for now), someone has to do the unpleasant work that keeps civilisation running. I don't think that UBI is the only solution. For example, why can't we work for one decade and live off that money for the rest of our life spans? The only reason I can see is that the game is rigged against this being possible. It is most definitely possible at the higher leves of income, so why not for the common person? Money is an abstraction, and this abstraction can be redefined -- as it was already in the past. If you guys in the US don't manage to get rid of idiots like Trump, I don't think it is possible that you will be on the forefront of western civilisation for the next round. Telmo. On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 10:10 PM, John Clark <johnkcl...@gmail.com> wrote: > Jobs are already being lost because of the improvements in AI and it's not > just unskilled workers that are in trouble. Don't think that because you're > so smart a AI could never do your job better than you can so the AI > revolution can't effect you personally > ; > in March of this year Blackrock, the world's biggest money manager with > stock funds worth over $275 billion, announced they would fire over 40 > employees including some portfolio managers with astronomical paychecks. The > reason is they decided to let computers running AI software pick stocks and > manage 11% of their funds instead of humans. 89% of Blackston's fund > managers still have a job, but if I was one of them I might decide I don't > need to buy a new Rolls Royce every month and it would be wise for me to > start saving my money for a rainy day. Improving technology has created a > huge gap between the rich and the poor and the gap isn't just increasing > it's accelerating. > > In 2010 the richest 388 people had as much wealth as half of the entire > human race, that's 3.6 Billion people. In 2014 the richest 85 people did. In > 2015 the richest 62 people did. This year the richest 8 people did. Think of > it, the 8 richest Human beings have as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 > BILLION Human beings! History has pretty decisively shown that huge > inequality just ain't healthy for any society, although history has no > examples of inequality of > the > magnitude > we have now. > > The improvements in AI that are certain to come > > in the next few years > > will only accelerate the acceleration of this socially destabilizing trend > unless something pushes back, something like government action. Health > insurance for all might be a good place to start. However Donald Trump wants > to push for lowering taxes on the rich, getting rid of the inheritance tax, > and eliminating health care for > > the > > 24 million > > poorest people in the country; > > but that's pushing in the wrong direction and will only accelerate the > acceleration of > the acceleration > of the wealth gap. > > Anybody who is not terrified by this doesn't understand the situation. > > One way or another this trend will NOT continue, if government action > doesn't slow down the widening of the gap something far far more unpleasant > will. > If > I were one of those 8 hyper rich people I'd be calling for change louder > than anyone because I like the fact that there is a connection between my > head and my shoulders and would prefer to keep it that way. > Let me be clear, > I'm not talking about "should", I'm not talking about morality, I'm just > saying > that > when the gap between the rich and the poor gets > too > large social instability occurs > and that can be very unhealthy for those at the very top. > > > John K Clark > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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