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Well yeah, it’s the job of the political process to figure out in which direction the bus should drive …

Would it really? My understanding was it only took off because so many people went along with it.

I agree with you that AI will probably replace a lot of white-collar jobs by 2035, which is not that far away, and it will necessitate political change.

I also consider that UBI (Universal Basic Income) is probably the most natural way forward. It pays a constant amount to each person per month, based on money collected through a wealth tax. It does not have to be implemented all-at-once, but can be gradually introduced. I.e. only provide $200/(person*month) in the beginning, and then continuously scale up as needed.

The wealth tax is needed simultaneously because the money has to come from somewhere. Printing money anew is not great because it leads to steep inflation.

quick question - what the hell do you do with a modern computer without internet access anyways?

i’d like to be a labor leader, but i’m not (yet). Yet here’s my opinion:

Knowledge was meant to be free since the beginning. I look at ideas as human-cultivated, carefully cultured viruses. They’re packages of information that live within a host.

They’re a lot less aggressive than their feral counterparts, but they’re still individual beings who want to spread. Holding back knowledge is unnatural, and the internet should be free.

Ich

Life is too short to learn german :D

No shit sherlock.

But the decline in real (inflation-adjusted) wages is a broader phenomenon and not constrained to gig-works, and that’s what deserves attention.

Background:

For years, inflation has been under-reported. Inflation should be measured mostly based on food-items, as the production methods don’t change over time in these areas, so prices there (inflation-adjusted) should stay constant. But if you look at official inflation rates, they are much lower (approx. 1% annually). Since wages barely keep up with official inflation, they fall behind on “food”-inflation. And that principle is basically at the core of the current “cost-of-living”-crisis.

The basic issue is that wages are dropping because progress is ending. Progress creates demand for human labor, and that keeps wages up. Since progress worldwide is slowing down, that depresses wages. That’s why we need fundamental reform, or revolution.

Or we need to find new progress. I’m all for mars settlement btw, just that many people here can’t imagine it happening (yet). But we’ll see.

Efficiency standards are a two-sided thing:

• on the one hand, they reduce energy and water consumption, which saves on resources.
• on the other hand, they increase engineering complexity and thus the cost of the machine.

Now, the engineering complexity requires able engineers to design and build the machine, which creates a stronger demand for engineers. That would be good for blue-collar workers.

I think “personhood” refers to the ability to sign contracts though. It has nothing to do with voting.

The problem is with humanity giving up control to machines.

I mean, humanity (especially in the West) has already given up large amounts of power to corporate CEOs, which can be modelled as soulless machines well enough, but installing AI would take it even one step further.

“personhood” by the law only refers to the ability to sign contracts.

companies and states already have that.

what you’re talking about is a “natural person”.

yeah … free from life

I think the mistake you’re making here is that you’re comparing living conditions as they are today.

When you conceive a child today, however, that child is gonna be sentient over a timespan of maybe 80 years, with a significant part of that being decades in the future.

You can guess now that it doesn’t matter how the living conditions today are. It matters how the living conditions in the next decades are going to be.

what are your stakes in the game? what does it cost you if you’re wrong and having children does indeed turn out to be a mistake? are you gonna pay for the damages? if not, then you have no right to tell people what to do.

the question you could ask yourself might be “would you like to be born again, as your child, if you could?” that would give you a clear indication of whether it’s worth it.

honestly, same. the only thing that keeps me going is some weird and irrational hope that things will get better in the future. i can feel that, but i can’t explain it rationally. if i didn’t have that hope, i’d go crazy. Like, what even is this mess?

giving birth to “not let them have it” sounds a lot like “owning the libs”

self-harming behaviour because everything is made into a competition.