The dream of perpetual labor machine is something capitalists are willing to destroy the planet in order to chase their fictitious dream. Oppressors must be stopped.
There was a reason why the phrase "perpetual" was used, to invoked how unrealistic perpetual energy machines are and how futile it is for the human race to chase such dreams.
How many tens of trillions of capital have been incinerated in reducing the quality of life for workers compared to actually uplifting them?
Sure, you'll need energy inputs, you're not going to beat thermodynamics. But we're not capturing even 0.01% of available energy yet, there's a lot of room to grow.
Industrial capitalism has been fantastic for quality of life. Here I am sitting in an air-conditioned office browsing HN during a workday, instead of slaving away in the fields as a peasant farmer. I'll take more automation please.
I was wondering the other day why we didn't put this level of effort into building a highway across the Atlantic and the Pacific. It seems to me if we just piled bricks made with all the money dumped into AI in the ocean, we could easily have done this. Likewise we could have just build a canal across the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These efforts would have drastically reduced shipping costs and risks but they look impossible (and stupid) on paper so no one tried them.
Why is AI different?
Because it happens in a computer and many people think that makes something easy, like CGI or computer hacking in movies. It's intangible magic and belief is the product sold to investors.