from Hacker News

“What Have We Done?”: Silicon Valley Engineers Fear They've Created a Monster

by efm on 8/9/18, 6:13 PM with 12 comments

  • by ilaksh on 8/9/18, 7:02 PM

    I believe that one thing that will happen is that we will see distributed technologies take off and they will break the marketholds of some of these massive technopolies like Uber or Amazon etc. That will not stop the commoditization of labor however or prevent those jobs from being completely replaced by robots.

    I think we will need to infuse these distributed technologies into our institutions in order to create a society that works with them. For example, we need distributed databases that can give real numbers for resource availability if we are going to be able to ensure that everyone has their minimum needs met if we can't rely on wages to be adequate anymore. AIs keep getting more powerful so this isn't going to just affect an underclass. On the other hand if we have accurate resource numbers and efficient use of them then maybe we can find a way to adjust wages and perhaps even add many more jobs by finding new ways to leverage AI and automation in symbiotic ways.

    To me brain computer interfaces are actually going to be critical in terms of ensuring that humans stay relevant and.. useful to other humans. It doesn't make sense to just stop all development of technology and forfeit all of the benefits. We need to adjust.

  • by angersock on 8/9/18, 6:40 PM

    Did nobody read and understand Manna? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_(novel)

  • by aglavine on 8/9/18, 6:40 PM

    First comes innovation, then regulations. No big deal.

  • by zaptheimpaler on 8/9/18, 7:33 PM

    The point of technology and capitalism is to make mankind more efficient and do the same things with less resources. The gig economy reflects that companies are automating more and need less labor.

    This should be a bood thing, except we're stuck in a system that needs everyone to have a job. I don't know exactly what a new system would look like, but i think it will have to start with a little more socialism and distributing the vast resources a tiny few people have more equitably.