[lotsofpulp]

Pretty wishful thinking to think software and hardware is advanced enough to figure out very advanced materials science and physics to do those tasks requiring manipulation of objects in the real world.

Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t, but manipulating digital output seems like a step that would come before manipulating real world objects.

[skeeter2020]

I think you need to get past the literal examples to the concept that they are saying "I wanted AI to free me from the mundane, not imprison me with it". This has long been the promise from the same people who now appear to be quite happy to turn us into the Matrix-style feedstock for AI (again, not literal - but maybe literally?). Natural extrapolation: they may be the last to go, but it won't need them either. How can so many smart people all be Wile E. Coyote?

[lotsofpulp]

The literal examples show that their concept is or was a fantasy (within a short timeframe of one person's lifetime).

I don't know why one would have expected "AI" to be capable of stamping out machines that have fine motor skills, but to me, it seems perfectly in line that they can re-arrange pixels on a screen to mimic something humans previously made.

The parameters for folding laundry in each individual's home or doing the dishes are so much greater than deconstructing and re-arranging digital information based on prior probabilities.

All the "smart" people I know were not expecting to replace their HVAC/plumbing/electrical/house cleaners/etc work with automation.

[wiseowise]

> How can so many smart people all be Wile E. Coyote?

Money. A whole lot of money. They won't live in the dystopian reality of most people in the near future, they'll buy their way out and live their comfortable lives.

[ryandrake]

That explains the ultra-wealthy, who likely will be able to buy their way out and live their comfortable lives.

But how do you explain the non-elites who are cheering on this dystopian reality? Some of them here in the HN comment section? If this thing that you are cheering for comes true, you'll be just as out of work and underclass as everyone else!

Do people really think the measly $2M 401(k) they got from their tech job is enough to buy them a ticket to the Elysium space station?

[wiseowise]

> Do people really think the measly $2M 401(k) they got from their tech job is enough to buy them a ticket to the Elysium space station?

Move to a low cost area and live like a king.

[lotsofpulp]

Not having to live in a low cost area is a defining feature of kings.

[loloquwowndueo]

Not really. Imagine you are a remote worker earning average tech salary. Would you rather live in a San Francisco slum (all you can afford) or a nice beachfront house in (insert random low-cost country of your preference)?