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by sunny678 64 days ago
It is really thought provoking. Interesting how lafargue saw machines as a path to freedom, yet today we fear them for the opposite reason. Maybe the real issuen't AI replacing work, but our inability to redefine what "valuable time" looks like without it.
1 comments
latexr 64 days ago
The issue is that he saw machines as working for the greater good of all, yet the reality we have are machines working for the benefit of a select few, who use that advantage to perpetuate the system where they are at the top and everyone is below. We have the technology to feed and clothe everyone and live comfortably, just not the collective will. Too many of us have been sold the fake idea that “everyone can make it” but individually. That you should be selfish and trample over others for your own personal success, instead of defining success as helping everyone do better.
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quirk 63 days ago
This is so full of holes I don't even know where to start. But the main one is that you have a false dichotomy in assuming that individual success and "helping everyone do better" are mutually exclusive. For example, see the free market economy of the past 250 years.
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latexr 63 days ago
> This is so full of holes I don't even know where to start.

I recommend you start by understanding the argument instead of straw manning it.

> But the main one is that you have a false dichotomy in assuming that individual success and "helping everyone do better" are mutually exclusive.

So your main objection against my point is an argument I haven’t made? There is a canyon of difference between “we have been sold idea X” and “idea Y and Z are incompatible”. Of course you can have individual success while helping everyone do better, because if you help everyone do better you also help yourself. That’s obvious, you are part of everyone.

> For example, see the free market economy of the past 250 years.

Yeah, that really helps everyone, that one there. No problems whatsoever that anyone can think of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market#Criticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_capitalism

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