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by troops_h8r
1173 days ago
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I disagree, and I think you should take a longer view. As automation approaches total replacement of labor, capitalism will cease to work at all. This view is best summarized in this (probably apocryphal) exchange between Henry Ford II and Walter Reuther (United Autoworkers Union leader), as they toured a new, highly automated car factory: > Ford: Gee, how are you going to get all these robots to pay union dues?
> Reuther: How are you going to get them to buy your cars? You say there will be less need for labor? Then who exactly will businesses sell their goods and services to, if everyone is out of a job? The development of AI would be qualitatively different from the previous developments of labor-saving machines: a switchboard operator who's job became obsolete could go get another job. Machines that can do anything a person can would mean there is no other job. I don't know what's in store for us, but it will probably be as drastic a shift as pre/post the agricultural/industrial revolutions. And there's no reason to think it should be for the better. I think we all ought to be very nervous and worried about this. |
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But in all seriousness, in a capitalist society the people holding the capital have to solve existential problems (not to humanity itself, but to the economic system in this case), because they control all the resources required to do so. If they decline to do so, we'll replace them with new owners of capital.