#robotics #artificialintelligence #jobs
Originally shared by Singularity 2045Big Think cannot seem to think big enough to break free from of the intellectually limiting shackles of a scarcity-based economy.
bigthink.com wrote (regarding total automation entailing no work): "The problem with these predictions is that providing for basic needs is not the only thing that compels us to work. We also like to follow through on our ideas by achieving goals that make us proud, creating new products to improve our lives, and feeling the thrill of power and control. In short, opportunity to do all these things can be as important as material compensation."
Yes of course people will always be inventive and creative, but when everything is free, when there is no financial compulsion to do things, we will not need to work; there will be no work regarding any type of economic-financial need, thus there will be no "work" because "work" is wholly about money. If everything was free people would not waste their time doing any of the jobs they currently do.
Furthermore the inventions of AIs will improve our lives vastly more then mere human inventions, thus there won't really be anything for humans to invent.
Judging your self-worth, feelings of pride, regarding what you can create, it is a silly type of self-esteem, which technologically enlightened humans will have progressed far beyond in the year 2045. You don't need to be a CEO or a Nobel winning scientist to feel proud, you can be proud merely because you are you. Humans are amazing beings even if they don't "achieve" anything regarding work. We merely need to let the splendour of our sentience shine, which can be done via discarding the shackles of work, thus we will have the freedom to focus on things which make us truly happy. The #capitalist (scarcity) modality of sociology does tie pride into what you can achieve but this travesty of capitalist pride, the capitalist work ethic, it is actually nothing to be proud of.
bigthink.com expands upon the point it is attempting to make: "For instance, Google encourages its employees to spend one day a week on their own projects. Some experts believe that the ideas generated this way could not possibly make up for the cost of paying thousands of people five days a week for four days of work on corporate priorities. Yet the policy is likely to give Google a big advantage in recruiting workers, who undoubtedly appreciate the freedom to use the company’s resources as they choose. It may also allow Google to pay them less."
I agree greater freedom is good for workers but what about total freedom? If people were not financially tied to their jobs, if their employer told them they never needed to come to work and their wage would always be an utterly secure limitless amount of money, furthermore an endless stream of AIs would create marvellous technological inventions to vastly improve our world, do you think many people would work?
The need to "keep up with the Joneses" is a scarcity-based power struggle due to limited power, limited wealth, it is a battle which will be obsolete when we no longer need to pit ourselves against other humans in a world of scarcity. The world of scarcity entails hard cash, but it's also a world where social-currency is a form of purchase-power. Social-currency is wholly dependent upon the need to purchase things with hard cash. Social standing, a financial abstraction, occurs due to dependence on other humans, which is a scarcity issue. When everything is free we will all have access to limitless power thus all forms to currency will be obsolete, we won't need to win favour with fellow humans, we won't need to impress people, we will be "free" in all sense of the word. We will be politically, sociologically, and financially free.
#Post-Scarcity
http://bigthink.com/econ201/post-scarcity-does-not-mean-post-work
