[throwaway0123_5]

Making all of those things cheaper is great, as long the automation isn't also making everyone poorer at an equal or faster rate. It doesn't really help if house prices and food prices are cut in half if most people lose their employment because of automation.

I think the concern is that true human+ AGI and advanced robotics would obsolete so many roles that it doesn't matter if things can be made more efficiently, because nobody will have any money at all. If/when AI can do my job better than me, it isn't giving me leverage, it is removing all leverage I have as someone who puts food on the table through labor.

In the interim period before that happens then sure, the automation is great for some people who can best leverage it.

[sothatsit]

On the path to “AGI” I would expect a lot of short-term pain as people lose their jobs while unemployment is still around normal levels. But if unemployment rises too much, we would pass laws to protect people, like greater corporate taxes to fund things like UBI.

But honestly, if we have this level of automation it feels like it would be very hard to predict how society will evolve. I would expect our current model of work-to-live to become untenable, and we’d move to something else. I doubt that transition will be easy.