• Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution

    From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Nightfox on Sat Aug 1 21:21:40 2020
    Re: Re: 5G
    By: Nightfox to Andeddu on Fri Jul 31 2020 11:41 pm

    That's a bit of an unknown right now. But the automated food preparation machines etc. would need maintenance, so perhaps fast food places will still need to hire some people to maintain those.

    That's a concern, but it still seems like theory right now. I don't think we would have to let AI totally take over and become self-aware and all that.

    Nightfox

    Automation will require maintenence so there will be jobs. But that just means they'll replace 98-99% of jobs, rather than 100% due to maintenence positions. Before long these there will be AI maintenece machines carrying out most of the run of the mill repairs on broken machines, it's a downward spiral.

    It's not about us "letting" AI take over. We humans are not particularly productive in a time where industrial machines are able to produce a lot more widgets at all hours of the day with a level of anatomical specificity we could only dream of. We've been told that this decade will begin the push towards automation, and it will continue far into the latter half of the century. This new industrial paradigm will see us past capitalism and towards a new resource based economy.

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  • From Atroxi@VERT to Andeddu on Sun Aug 2 09:24:14 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Andeddu to Nightfox on Sat Aug 01 2020 09:21 pm

    This new industrial paradigm will see us past capitalism and towards a new resource based economy.

    Exactly this. The current economic system appears to incentivize efficiency in order to create more profit. Using that line of thinking it is necessary to replace inefficient meat machines with steel machines that never tire, never eat and would probably only need to be maintained every six months or so.

    But therein lies the problem, because the current economic system also requires people earning and spending money to function, money that they get by being inefficient meat machines. It's like this endless ouroboros that shouldn't stop eating its tail lest it'll die.
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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Underminer on Sun Aug 2 17:25:10 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Underminer to Andeddu on Sat Aug 01 2020 05:57 pm

    No, the maintenance jobs required will be far less in number than the menial jobs they're replacing, and not all coffee slingers and burger flippers have either the aptitude or desire to move to a maintenance position. There absolutely will be employment displacement.

    Likewise, many analyst and admin positions are starting to be threatened in the same way, so we're going to be losing jobs both at the top and the bottom of the aptitude ladder.

    I don't know if you're trying to disagree with me but that's the point I was trying to make. For example: for every 1000 menial jobs lost, there may be 1-2 additional maintenence jobs made available. That's still a net displacement of 998/999 per one thousand jobs.

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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Atroxi on Mon Aug 3 15:40:15 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Atroxi to Andeddu on Sun Aug 02 2020 09:24 am

    Exactly this. The current economic system appears to incentivize efficiency in order to create more profit. Using that line of thinking it is necessary to replace inefficient meat machines with steel machines that never tire, never eat and would probably only need to be maintained every six months or so.

    But therein lies the problem, because the current economic system also requires people earning and spending money to function, money that they get by being inefficient meat machines. It's like this endless ouroboros that shouldn't stop eating its tail lest it'll die.
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    That's why UBI has been discussed in order to maintain the consumer based economy. It's more profitable for the largest corporations to pay far higher taxes than it is to employ a human workforce. This will be a phased process over the next 20-30 years, but it'll happen during most of our lifetimes.

    As machines become more reliable, smarter and cheaper to run/produce, the human workforce will dwindle -- this is the model for the "New Future" and there's no stopping it.

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  • From Ogg@VERT/EOTLBBS to All on Mon Aug 3 18:28:00 2020
    Hello Andeddu!

    ** On Monday 03.08.20 - 10:40, andeddu wrote to Atroxi:

    That's why UBI has been discussed in order to maintain the consumer
    based economy. It's more profitable for the largest corporations to
    pay far higher taxes than it is to employ a human workforce. This will
    be a phased process over the next 20-30 years, but it'll happen during
    most of our lifetimes.

    But how will the rich corporations sustain their riches? Who is going to
    buy their products when the majority of people are not working and only receiving UBI? I don't think the rich corporations would stay rich for
    very long that way. Besides, corporations find ways to funnel their
    riches to avoid paying taxes. So, how is the gov't going to fund UBI for
    the long-term?


    As machines become more reliable, smarter and cheaper to run/produce,
    the human workforce will dwindle -- this is the model for the "New
    Future" and there's no stopping it.

    What exactly are the non-working people going to do? Is it supposed to be
    a world as depicted in Brave New World by Huxley where everyone just
    "lives", takes soma and have sex?

    This topic seems to be steering away from internet things. Maybe it could
    go elsewhere.

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  • From Arelor@VERT/PALANT to Andeddu on Mon Aug 3 16:09:49 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Andeddu to Atroxi on Mon Aug 03 2020 03:40 pm

    That's why UBI has been discussed in order to maintain the consumer based economy. It's more profitable for the largest corporations to pay far higher taxes than it is to employ a human workforce. This will be a phased process over the next 20-30 years, but it'll happen during most of our lifetimes.

    Paying higher taxes for the right to work is better for corporations than paying lower taxes and avoid automation just up to some point.

    Extreme case: in thedark universe of the future, humans become fat lazy useless asses that are capable of no useful work whatsoever, and all the workforce consists of automated droids, which are owned by a single propietor.

    At that point, the single owner of the droids gets absolutely no benefit for sustaining a useless mass of humans who is incapable of doing anything for him. He could as well drop the burden, so to speak, since his mechanical slaves are doing anything he needs for him.

    Extreme examples are extreme, but the point is, at some point any entity that posseses big ammounts of workforce will decide that it is not worth the effort to dedicate high quantities of that workforce to sustain third parties. Corporations like high taxes because it prevents mom and dad business from stealing from their pie, but if you were to crank it up too much...




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  • From Underminer@VERT/UNDRMINE to Arelor on Mon Aug 3 20:19:25 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Arelor to Ogg on Mon Aug 03 2020 07:04 pm

    But how will the rich corporations sustain their riches? Who is going
    to
    If you have tons of Artificial General Intelligence equipped robots you need no money to be rich anymore. Just put your robots to work. Let them manufacture your stuff for your own consumption. No need to buy anything

    That's getting into postulation about a post scarcity economy. There's a number of ways that can play out, but we have a number of very real economic problems coming between now and then related to where the break points in our current system are for percentage employed.
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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Ogg on Tue Aug 4 18:59:37 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Ogg to All on Mon Aug 03 2020 06:28 pm

    But how will the rich corporations sustain their riches? Who is going to
    buy their products when the majority of people are not working and only receiving UBI? I don't think the rich corporations would stay rich for
    very long that way. Besides, corporations find ways to funnel their
    riches to avoid paying taxes. So, how is the gov't going to fund UBI for the long-term?

    What exactly are the non-working people going to do? Is it supposed to be
    a world as depicted in Brave New World by Huxley where everyone just "lives", takes soma and have sex?

    There are already a huge number of people who just "exist"... this concept is nothing new, it's the natural extention of the welfare state. Once the US dollar collapses, China are going to have to increase their worker's salary so that they can have a self-sustaining economy. They could end up becoming the natural buyers for American produce.

    UBI isn't comfortable, it's subsistance living... I think the corporations are going to have to have a global outreach in realtion to exchange to accumulate most of their wealth. We are at a time where it is fairly clear there are going to be winners and losers along with mass consolodation of market-share. Amazon, due to the nature of e-commerce, is clearly a front runner with a 100% increase in Q2 profits. They will in turn continue to expand in their own market along with other shrinking markets that are ripe for the taking. The death of the high street is another opportunity for these corporations to push their agenda further. I await with interest the result of the congressional anti-trust hearing but I won't hold my breath for any meaningful reprimand.

    Aldous Huxley was speaking of social engineering, the creation of a society adhearing to perfect equilibrium. I don't think such a model would be too far a stretch in the future... however, a lot would have to happen in the next decade for people to warm to the "everybody belongs to everybody else" form of scientific dictatorship.

    We are in a troubled period which will result in some kind of transition. The era of mass consumerism is dead, it's just a questions as to what kind of system will take its place.

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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Arelor on Tue Aug 4 19:10:32 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Arelor to Andeddu on Mon Aug 03 2020 04:09 pm

    Extreme case: in thedark universe of the future, humans become fat lazy useless asses that are capable of no useful work whatsoever, and all the workforce consists of automated droids, which are owned by a single propietor.

    At that point, the single owner of the droids gets absolutely no benefit for sustaining a useless mass of humans who is incapable of doing anything for him. He could as well drop the burden, so to speak, since his mechanical slaves are doing anything he needs for him.

    Extreme examples are extreme, but the point is, at some point any entity that posseses big ammounts of workforce will decide that it is not worth the effort to dedicate high quantities of that workforce to sustain third parties. Corporations like high taxes because it prevents mom and dad business from stealing from their pie, but if you were to crank it up too much...

    It's up to the humans to protest and lobby goverment into enacting protective legislation -- much like the Luddites of the 1700-1800s.

    When you take it to the nth degree, it's an argument of philosophy. Perhaps it's up to us to create our version of the supreme being... a silicon based AI lifeform which can self-replicate. I don't know where we are going to end up, but no theory is too ridiculous at this point. The 2020s are likely going to be the most tospy-turvy incongruous period in human history.

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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Arelor on Wed Aug 5 16:45:00 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Arelor to Andeddu on Tue Aug 04 2020 05:57 pm

    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Andeddu to Arelor on Tue Aug 04 2020 07:10 pm

    It's up to the humans to protest and lobby goverment into enacting protectiv legislation -- much like the Luddites of the 1700-1800s.

    Here is the thing. There are two kinds of REAL power.

    1* Being able to give others what they want.
    2* Being able to destroy something others want.

    A small group of propietors with an enormous army of droids has loads of Power 1 (they can give manufactured goods to the public and the government) and probably Power 2 (killer robots and Terminators).

    If the public ever became concerned about the increasing power of Necrocomp Inc and its power over the country and attempted to coerce the government to enact protective legislation, Necrocomp would use Power 1 ("No more cheap medicines for you, Mr. President, if you pass the anti-robots bill").

    Giving cheap or free stuff to people and making them dependant on you has been historically much more powerful than beating them to do your bidding. We can see it nowadays when a change of legislation makes some industry relocate from some city. Every politician pisses their pants.

    Well that's what's happening right now. We are going to see a consolidation of industry along with a looming banking crisis which will result in further consolidation of the banking sector. Governments have always been susceptible to lobbyists & their demands... big corporate entites have a propensity to maintain and expand their power. When push comes to shove, there are not enough honest people in government to stand up for the working man.

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  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Ogg on Fri Aug 7 17:38:00 2020
    On 08-06-20 20:43, Ogg wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    The discussion was what would humans do when they are all jobless and replaced by automation. At least total displacement is the theorical extreme. I don't think that would ever be the reality. Money
    ultimately drives progress and/or exploitation. Rich people need other people.

    I'm just pointing out not all people are defined or dependent (other than financially) upon their occupations.

    The writers for StarTrek or similar have explored the idea of societies where automation surpasses human efficiency, and eventually androids/ machines "decide" that humans are a hinderance to further efficiency therefore must be destroyed.

    Yes, that is a common theme in sci fi, as I said last time around.


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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Ogg on Sat Aug 8 23:31:00 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Ogg to Vk3jed on Thu Aug 06 2020 08:43 pm

    The discussion was what would humans do when they are all jobless and replaced by automation. At least total displacement is the theorical extreme. I don't think that would ever be the reality. Money ultimately drives progress and/or exploitation. Rich people need other people.

    The writers for StarTrek or similar have explored the idea of societies where automation surpasses human efficiency, and eventually androids/ machines "decide" that humans are a hinderance to further efficiency therefore must be destroyed.

    "So we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it. Unless we learn how to prepare for, and avoid the potential risks, AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilization." - Stephen Hawking

    This reminds me of the weird cult in Deus Ex known as The Church of the Machine God. Its acolytes believed that it was imperative man merge with AI in order to avoid being destroyed by it.

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  • From Andeddu@VERT/AMSTRAD to Ogg on Sun Aug 9 22:41:35 2020
    Re: Re: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
    By: Ogg to Andeddu on Sun Aug 09 2020 02:29 pm

    I am glad you posted that.

    From a BBC article:

    "Stanley Kubrick's film 2001 and its murderous computer HAL encapsulate
    many people's fears of how AI could pose a threat to human life"

    Even Elon Musk has reservations on AI. I haven't read much on Elon's concerns, but I will now.

    My take on AI is that although it is referred to "machine learning" by engineers, it is still a bunch of if/then/else sequences done very fast to appear like the device is smart. The if/then/else stuff and any other considerations still have to be programmed by humans. Humans are not perfect and cannot forsee all scenarios.

    Elon Musk began with reservations on AI and spoke mostly about how it would destroy mankind, as we would be the mere intellectual equivalent of cattle compared to it. Now that he's had some time to ponder the question, he has decided that it would be best if we merged with AI, in a "if you can't beat them, join them" kind of solution.

    He has since pumped huge funds into his Neuralink nano-tech company and is in the process of creating a brain-machine interface. He has already made progress in this field and is due this year to experiment on live humans by implanting thousands of electodes into their brains in a non-invasive surgical procedure. Sounds a little crazy, but this appears to be the beginning the trans-humanist experience.

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