The fly in this ointment is hacking. There will always be antisocial and criminal types who will cause problems for a automated society in proportion to the level of our dependence on that automation.
Whatever one genius can create, another genius can disrupt. The smart member of an automated society will stay off the grid, stay away from smart phones, use cash, go to a human doctor, stay away from automation at their job, and don't make friends with a robot. The Iranians were surprised that their automation was perverted by a hostel force even when their computers were not connected to a network. Those that live by this sword will die by that sword. And then there will be those occasional solar flares that will take out all automation for months or years at a time, the time that the disruption will last is dependent on the complexity of the automation that is integrated into the society. Automation is not idiot proof. Most people do not know how to protect themselves from the dark side of automation. On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 1:26 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > H Veeder <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> America is running out of jobs. It's time for a universal basic income. >> >> >> http://theweek.com/article/index/267720/america-is-running-out-of-jobs-its-time-for-a-universal-basic-income >> >> . . . >> > > That was pretty good. Here is an article linked to it, which is also good: > > > http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/robots-artificial-intelligence-jobs-automation > > I like the animated figure here showing how long it takes to fill Lake > Michigan. This illustrates the power of Moore's Law. Quote: > > ". . . Suppose it's 1940 and Lake Michigan has (somehow) been emptied. > Your job is to fill it up using the following rule: To start off, you can > add one fluid ounce of water to the lake bed. Eighteen months later, you > can add two. In another 18 months, you can add four ounces. And so on. > Obviously this is going to take a while. > > At this point it's been 30 years, and even though 16,000 gallons is a fair > amount of water, it's nothing compared to the size of Lake Michigan. To the > naked eye you've made no progress at all. > > So let's skip all the way ahead to 2000. Still nothing. You have—maybe—a > slight sheen on the lake floor. How about 2010? You have a few inches of > water here and there. This is ridiculous. It's now been 70 years and you > still don't have enough water to float a goldfish. Surely this task is > futile? > > But wait. Just as you're about to give up, things suddenly change. By > 2020, you have about 40 feet of water. And by 2025 you're done. After 70 > years you had nothing. Fifteen years later, the job was finished. . . ." > > - Jed > >
