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by mvanaltvorst 1715 days ago
The minute we have solved AGI, will we have solved economics as well? I would imagine that if you just pit 100,000 smart agents against each other with a virtual currency you could calculate the ideal government policies to maximise welfare.
3 comments
ashleyn 1715 days ago
No, because as long as scarcity exists, there's going to be winners and losers - and losers will not be happy being selected as the losers. Whether it's by a bureau or by machine.
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scoopdewoop 1715 days ago
Scarcity is largely artificial, but ok
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rytill 1714 days ago
Scarcity is built into the fabric of humanity. Even if we solve food, material, and comfort, humans will continue to compete for mates and status, which are ordered human constructs.
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rybosworld 1715 days ago
The earths resources are finite, no?
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imtringued 1714 days ago
The assumption is that the population is finite as well. I don't know how things are going to end.
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djbebs 1715 days ago
No it isn't
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imtringued 1714 days ago
There is artificial scarcity of jobs, i.e. employment opportunities. Think about how in a recession people lose their job even though they want to pay rent and buy food. It's because the remaining full time jobs pile up on fewer people. This results in a downward spiral as people without incomes can't spend and those with incomes become cautious and save instead of spending their money.

Let's say the maslow hierarchy ranks needs according how productive they are with shelter and food at the bottom being the most productive and social needs at the top being the least productive.

By that logic we should be employing people according to their needs to achieve high productivity in the economy. If you have two employees and fire one the economy will shift away from the productive part of the economy to the less productive part because the second employee is no longer able to buy food. Income welfare exists for this very reason. To take the surplus of the first employee and reallocate it to food and rent. If we had "job welfare" then we would take the jobs and spread them out over more people.

Instead of, "oh you want to eat? too bad we won't let you work" it's "you eat, you work"

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NateEag 1715 days ago
Don't forget that an AGI would have no particular reason to do anything for humans.

We might be most relevant to one as a source of raw materials:

https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer

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ur-whale 1714 days ago
> The minute we have solved AGI, will we have solved economics as well?

Certainly not if you allow AGIs to be economic actors.

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