| All this rambling with citations but no coherent original thought weaving several conflicting ideas together. Illustrative example: AI is simultaneously going to take all the jobs yet it sucks and nobody is getting any real productivity out of it yet these evil CEOs will somehow manage to push "adequate AI" to disrupt everything to justify their unrealistic valuations yet respected economists predict only 0.X% impact over the next years etc etc... It's just a grab bag of arguments thrown into one long rant, and as some comments here point out, some very obvious contingencies (which even have supporting data now) have not been considered. All this and not a single mention of the very obvious thesis that the real problem is Capitalism. Seriously, go through each point and see how it can be traced to Capitalism. Why do these CEOs keep telling everybody there will be social upheaval and yet continue building this technology? Because Capitalism demands infinite growth in profits, and if they don't build it someone will! Why do people feel lost without a job? Because Capitalism tells them they are worthless without any "productivity" (Hmm, wonder why "starving artists" were a thing. Maybe that's also why they were so derided: the system didn't like people who found self-worth independent of economic "productivity.") Now, Capitalism is the problem, but also potentially the solution. Here's a dynamic that doesn't seem to have been covered in these discussions: 1. The majority of economic activity is generated in supporting the economy itself. We know what happens when everyone loses a job: the economy shrinks drastically (the "Bust.") TFA claims "plenty will still happen" and "GDP might even grow" but handwaves away what that would be. 2. The wealthiest are so wealthy because they essentially take a cut of the economy. So their wealth depends on the economy growing. They are ruthless capitalists and don't care about us, but Capitalism demands growth and they are monomaniacally driven by it. 3. As such their interests are aligned in keeping the economy growing and labor compensated and spending. Yes, they have their doomsday bunkers just in case, but none of them wants that life (where's the growth?!?) and they know it. Add to that governments, all influences considered, are also overwhelmingly invested in keeping the population happy. I don't know what the solution will look like, but all the parties involved -- the people, the elites, and the governments -- are heavily incentivized to keep things stable. Something will get worked out. |