Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lyu07282 3 hours ago
Reads like a wild uneducated delusional libertarian fanfic. AI will make the all evil government at the top of the pyramid first enslave us all and then even come for the trillionaires (OH NO!) and then there is only the evil government left and then the AI even comes for the evil government people (OH YES!)! Sort of have to read it in the voice of a 12 year old.

This is the kind of stuff I imagine they read to each other at meetings of Peter Thiel's 'Dialog' events while they sit in a circle taking turns sipping blood from palestinian baby skulls.

1 comments

Agreed, but there's an intermediate form of this that's more likely.

If everything you do for money goes in and out over a wire, AI replacement within a few years is more likely than not. Elevator mechanics will probably do fine. Web designers, not so much. Expect elite overproduction, where there are too many educated people for the jobs that require such education. The US is there now, if you're a new college grad.

Now, there are several ways that can play out. The Gulf oil states have a huge jobs program for their own citizens. Most Saudis work for the government. Not doing the real work. 92% of construction workers in Saudi Arabia are not Saudis. This works out OK if the money is available.

Egypt used to work that way until the oil ran out. Egypt used to guarantee a government job to all college graduates. That had to end. Then youth unemployment hit 34%. Now it's down from the peak. [1] Not clear how that was achieved. Anyone know?

So that's the welfare state approach. Requires a rich government with an income stream that doesn't come from the lower classes.

Then there's the mass underclass result. Something like the favelas of Brazil. Lots of shacks, crowding, homelessness, and the usual urban dystopia movie world. That's what happens by default. Attempts to revolt result in a new boss, same as the old boss. "Workers of the world, unite!" doesn't work for non-workers. That's a stable situation.

Some combination of those two scenarios is the most likely outcome.

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.ZS?location...