

Dear Elon, You're Wrong - cbames89
http://aesirlab.com/writings/vol1-9

======
brianclements
"As robots fulfill these menial tasks, our society becomes more productive,
and we are able to meet more needs than our current system. And as more of the
basic needs of society are met, more will begin to move up Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs—realizing higher callings and answering to creativity... Robotics and
A.I. are more likely to bring about a period of new enlightenment than one of
subjugation."

In an ideal situation sure. But thats if:

1) education keeps up with the demands/flavors of the job market

2) education stays affordable.

3) the economy finds ways to value "creative goods" that people occupying the
higher levels of Maslow's Hierarchy create. If the music industry is any
signifier, this is not the trend.

4) Somehow, some way, a middle class needs to flourish again. The poor can
create culture, but don't have the resources to insert it into the economy,
and the wealthy manage/own culture. But it's the middle class that is the
sweet spot and links the two.

A society that mainly occupies the upper Maslow's Hierarchy, without a demand
or infrastructure for monetizing it, is a society of unemployed and poor (but
maybe happy?) hobbyists.

------
charlesray
The fact that otherwise intelligent people seem to genuinely think that AI
would take over and run amok like the fucking Matrix or something is pretty
ridiculous.

~~~
washadjeffmad
Modern humans have not demonstrated either particularly good foresight or an
ability to correct the things we've set in motion. Case in point is nuclear
arms.

If antibiotics had always been regulated as tightly as pain pills are today,
resistant bacterial strains would never have proliferated.

Malaria carrying mosquitoes in Africa were not overwhelmingly resistant to
pesticides before Jane Fonda's emotional pleas swayed the public to call for
the end to DEET spraying.

Crop monocultures not bred for disease resistance led to the loss and
destruction of entire cultivars at enormous cost. Insects and other vermin
that have coevolved with humans have entire industries dedicated to and
required for their control.

Granted neither mice, mosquitoes, nor bacteria are as intelligent as humans,
and certainly none of them are actively trying to enslave humanity, but
intelligence isn't what makes these things dangerous- they're mindlessly
disruptive, and even worse at foresight than we are.

We shouldn't foster a culture of lax attitudes toward security or an IoT
primordial soup for AIs that lasts into a different century where the
conditions might make it impossible to contain or eradicate. The flags need to
be waved now not just so that when something unexpected happens someone can
smugly say they told us so, but so that the future is designed in such a way
that the worst case can't occur.

