#vegetarian #vegan #evolution Originally shared by Sean P. O. MacCath-Moran +Eve Volve: "Meat allowed us to evolve" Really? I think you're mistaken to believe this is a certainty, but what causes you to believe this is so, +Eve Volve ? As I understand it, there have been healthy, thriving vegetarians and vegans for as long as there have been humans. Some were so due to moral or ethical concerns, others due to resource utilization issues, others due to cultural taboos. All other factors being equal, the veg(etari)ans have thrived, and continue to do so. For some more recent historical examples of vegans, we can look at Pythagoras, the "Pythagoreans" (as vegans were called for the following 1300 years), along with a plethora of like-minded contemporaries (e.g. goo.gl/lgDBL ). Buddhists, Jainists, et al., have been doing grand as veg(etari)ans since around the 6th century BCE. Prior to this, there's compelling reason to believe that most people were veg...
Sooner than we think.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to all these "Will AI replace X" is yes. Yes, it will replace everyone. Eventually.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling this all isn't going to pan out well. Here's a nice young woman working hard at being a designer. She went to school for it. She's in debt with student loans, but designing makes decent money. Until her career is wiped out by an automated design utility that is 10 times less expensive. The CEO of that software company makes a fortune and his clients happily save money and get great results. But what became of our young designer? Already in debt, she can't pay her bills. She can't find work in her field because no one is hiring for something that is automated, ...and to return to school requires more loans. How? She does what? There are millions of her across every field that technology is now automating. I don't see this ending well for everyone, but a few people will become ultra wealthy. What then?
ReplyDeleteRevolution, naturally. And the rich will have nobody to blame but themselves.
ReplyDeleteA better and more proper method of transitioning to a jobless society would be co-ownership of robots; your employer owns half of it and you own the other half, your employer pays you a wage for your robot.
This would mitigate some of the issues, as you could then have the robot work day and night to offset the loss of income.
But like I said, it's something the rich won't do. They're signing their own death warrant, and will continue to do so.
That is quite possible, and quite unfortunate if true. The world is currently constructed along the lines of supply chain optimization and just-in-time order fulfillment along with comprehensive automation. The fact is without these things in place, and people to run them (ie they are not fully automated and still require many people to be involved all along the delivery sequence), the entire system would collapse. That's the risk of this kind of just-in-time delivery setup ... if one aspect fails then the entire thing breaks down. What would the results be? In short - millions upon millions of people would lose access to live's necessities. And yes, there would be a raging inferno in the streets and lots of the 1% would get themselves trussed up on lamp posts (it's certainly happened many times before, historically speaking)... but for each 1% who the mob nails there will be another supply chain disrupted. So in the end it will be a compact of mutual suicide for the entire civilization.
ReplyDeleteThat, typically speaking, is not a good thing.
I agree... it is not a good thing. However, should these events remain unchained, I see an empty chair in the corner.
ReplyDeleteI think we need a better plan for the future. I just finished reading (alllllmost) Jaron Lanier's "Who Owns the Future".
ReplyDeleteHe presents a very interesting (and I believe valid as hell) critique of the current situation.
Unfortunately I suspect his prescription is so tepid and implausible, I am left feeling that his idealism has once again gotten the better of him. He's presenting a hippie dippie argument to the Upper Strata of the 1%, saying "common guys, lets play nice ... after all we have to share the playground"... I'm guessing that the people he's trying to appeal to aren't listening to him at all. They are busy conquering the Universe.
You're likely right. It's important to remember that most of the rich grew up rich, the vast majority in fact... and are very detached from any of the struggles even the middle class has to deal with.
ReplyDeleteSo it's hard to speak to sympathy when someone hasn't a clue what difficulties people have to deal with.
Yup. That's true. Besides, the crowd he's appealing to are big believers in The Singularity, and think that only those who have enough money will be able to participate in it.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of everyone else will wind up getting left behind in The Great Miasma... think Elysium. That's their model. Cities in the Sky, Super-Enhanced Humans with AI-Powers, Ultra-Longevity... etc. But only for the ultra rich. Everyone else will likely need to be culled sooner or later. The Singularity Elites, you might call them. And they are presently, according to Lanier, in Full-Throttle Mode right now, and showing zero signs of slowing down.
We need a better plan. I suspect Lanier's plan is doomed to fail because he's relying on the Singularity Elite to change course and let the Middle Class suck up a vast proportion of the wealth they are aggregating now. Common, man. You think they're going to do that? Seriously?
Too bad the end game is not one in which the Singularity Elite survive. Even with a mechanized Robot AI Global Military Force at their disposal ... they still won't survive the combined and aggregate wrath of the Left-Behind once it's been ignited. Ferguson is like a little tiny signal flair in the direction they are taking everyone. They seem to think they can hide out in New Zealand in armored secret fortresses. But they won't survive there either. And at the current rate of change it looks like the end game will catch up with them before they manage to build a city in space.
So ... yeah ... they really should read Lanier's book and think it over again. But they won't. Just a hunch.
I am entirely for the singularity as well, but I am a poor person who likely won't be able to afford what I truly want from the singularity; a new body.
ReplyDeleteReading this over again, it strikes me that they may imagine the End Game will be a lot like a game of Zombie Apocalypse. One in which the Singularity Elite think they will ramp up with Super-Powers and Super-Healing, with Bat-Mobiles and Jet Packs. They may think that all sounds like a lot of fun, because, you know, Zombie Apocalypse with Jet Packs is fun.
ReplyDeleteBut can it really be fun to wage a war against the entirety of humanity for your own selfish gain? Can that really turn out to be any fun at all?
I don't think so.
It will be very interesting to see what alien archaeologists make of this world when they happen upon it a few thousand years from now.
"Primitive man used moving pictures. And then promptly destroyed their planet."
Oh well.
I don't have a problem with the concept of The Singularity, so long as it helps humanity, and does not destroy it. And that depends almost entirely on who is running the show as the Singularity manifests, and what kind of people they are.
ReplyDeleteThey won't find our moving pictures, because all of our recording mediums will decay within 1000 years.
ReplyDeleteI agree... the impermanence of our throwaway society is very saddening, especially if we implode like is a good possibility of happening.
ReplyDelete