[Synaesthesia]

AI could be a boon for mankind. it can be a useful tool. We could employ it in a manner which provides more dignity for workers. That is, let them work less hours, have more leisure time etc. That necessitates something which will keep the powers of capital in check, and people don't seem to think that this is possible.

Corporations are just so large and powerful, that people feel hopeless. Byt we could still get together and enact legislation which will override them. Othing is impossible, it just takes some imagination and organisation.

Like Chomsky once said, if the peasants of Haiti could organise and overthrow their government and create a functioning democracy, then surely we can too, with far more advantages.

[conartist6]

I see such positivity in your comment, but also every technology has promised to make everything easier and more convenient and so to give us more leisure time. What the evidence has shown is that the people who end up living the life of leisure are the ones who amass wealth and power, and everyone else is going to be stuck in the rat race because, well, we're living things. The rules we live by are: you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't even stop playing the game.

[simianwords]

People who amass wealth are the ones working more hours on average.

[Synaesthesia]

It's up to us to create the future we want to see.

[philistine]

Haiti's democracy was never, in its storied 200 years of existence, functioning. France saw fit it never did until the damage was irreparable.

[Synaesthesia]

I'm referring to the ascendance of Bertrand Aristide. Now he was quickly removed but it was a remarkable triumph of grassroots democracy.

[Lionga]

Why not go to Haiti if it so good there? No doubt US (or basically 90% of other gov.) are shit, but Haiti must be one of the worst.

[r33b33]

The only way to solve inequality created by concentration of AI superpowers will be extreme violence, and I'm tired of pretending that's not the case.

[Ferret7446]

You say that like inequality is a problem. If so, there's a really easy way to solve it: nuke the planet back to the stone age.

Personally, I'd rather have inequality if it means everyone can live a peaceful life. Let the rich have their yachts or whatever.

I don't see why the increased productivity provided by AI won't make things better, given that all of the ills of the world are caused by scarcity: that is, insufficient productivity.

[r33b33]

> I'd rather have inequality if it means everyone can live a peaceful life

Thank God a large majority of people with ironclad convictions don't think like you.

[parineum]

They actually do, if you ask them better questions. "Inequality" is a boogeyman that has a lot of baggage attached to it by society but, if you were to ask people if it was a good thing for millions of people to be lifted out of poverty if the cost was that on person was obscenely wealthy, most people would side on the side of inequality.

"Inequality" is just an academic word for "Keeping up with the Jones'". Each generation has more material good, both necessities and otherwise, than previous generations. It's only through comparison that people are made to feel poor. Rather than look at trends of poverty and flourishing, people are made to feel cheated by not getting a slice of someone else's pie.

[Synaesthesia]

I don't think so, in fact it might be counterproductive. I think it could and should be done within existing structures. But it will require mass mobilisation and counters to mass propaganda.