The AI Threat Isn’t Skynet. It’s the End of the Middle Class

a reply to: soficrow


This is all the more reason to tighten immigration then.

Seriously though.....there was just a report this morning, Bill Gates at a recent event showing how interactive computers can put teachers out of a job.

a reply to: Logarock

Well considering classrooms have too many students and not enough teachers in a reality where we want kids to learn more than basic math and literature, I'd say it's well overdue.

A teacher I talk too and from conversations with my teachers, I learned that realistically too much demand is put on their shoulders.

It's difficult to interact with 30 students at a time, even more difficult to guarantee they are all on the same level education wise.

Usually the smart get adopted and the rest get a meager education, sad but true.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: soficrow

You would probably appreciate seeing this:

The Story of the Millennium: The AGI Manhattan Project:
Welcome to the Unpossible Future... The AGI Manhattan Project
CHAPTER 2 - Economic World War: Technocratic Plutocrat Elites vs. The People
CHAPTER 3 - The Global Meltdown of FEAR

My original 'legacy series' from mid-2010. Everything I worked towards during the decade. I had several other chapters up in the website I launches specifically for the project. But shortly after I got that far I had Youtube and my paid Photobucket accounts nuked with no route for redemption provided. Totally screwed the media in the bulk of the some 1,000 blog / forum etc posts I had made during those years (many of which had been reposted by others further and wider than I could ever really know).

I've been enjoying and appreciating your posts, but sorry! Can't keep up.

Great links and thanks for the heads up on all your old threads. ...Don't you just hate being right all the time? And having to wait a decade or two for everyone else to catch up?

originally posted by: Ohanka

originally posted by: BeefNoMeat
a reply to: soficrow

I'm not sure what news org produced the segment, but it was a 8-10 min piece on the coming revolution in job-killing robots...same actors involved in the research and development: MIT.

Here is June, 2013 article from Technology Review remarking a lot of the same things about robotics: Job-killing Robots At a Plant Near You Soon

The robotics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is truly revolutionary - now they're mastering AI and telling us our jobs are going bye-bye.

It's coming folks and the solutions a few, if any. Do we want to live an economy where you can get Amazon Prime Now delivery within 2-4 hours? Do we want ever-increasingly, ubiquitous smart phones that can task our lives (e.g. actively do task for you that frees up/eliminates leisure/work time)??

What trade-offs are you willing to make? - is the key question here. How much do you need/want? How much can you go without?

Anyone willing to suggest a trade-off they would make in the face of ever-increasingly capable robotics and AI software??

I'd honestly give up my sovereign driving ability to driver-less cars if it meant less traffic. There's a trade-off off the top of my head...

I'd give up the "luxury" of having to take the overflowing, foul-smelling, easily breakable bin bag out to the curb quite happily, does that count?

Of course. I'd hope it would be one of the first tasks taken over by our artificial intelligent robotic overlords! And they better not leave the top open so the wind can blow it over!! That happened yesterday, so you and I are definitely on the same page with trade-offs

a reply to: Ohanka
a reply to: strongfp

Are you sure you wouldn't enjoy your own automated kitchen? And a robot cook making star quality food in your own home? These things are gonna be standard like dishwashers soon...

Robotic chef can cook Michelin star food in your kitchen by mimicking world's best cooks

A smartphone-controlled robotic chef that can cook world-class food using recipes downloaded from an online store sounds like pure science fiction - but the robot is real, will go on sale in 2017 and just made me a crab bisque.

It is hard to put into words exactly how much the Moley robotic chef feels like it is from the future. A pair of robotic arms suspend from above a conventional kitchen with hob, oven, work surface and sink. They can match the dexterity of human hands, work just as quickly as a professional chef, and are issued commands by an iPhone app.

a reply to: PublicOpinion

originally posted by: PublicOpinion
a reply to: soficrow

The 4th industrialisation is a special kind of terminator.

Indeed, all the evidence so far is that the benefits of the coming change will be concentrated among a relatively small elite, thus exacerbating the current trend towards greater levels of inequality.

This was a point stressed by the Swiss bank UBS in a report launched in Davos. It notes that there will be a “polarisation of the labour force as low-skill jobs continue to be automated and this trend increasingly spreads to middle class jobs.”

Fourth Industrial Revolution brings promise and peril for humanity

Yes. But. Maybe we can direct and control it? Change our economic system, make sure ALL humanity benefits?

Turn the nightmare into a dream?

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: PublicOpinion

originally posted by: PublicOpinion
a reply to: soficrow

The 4th industrialisation is a special kind of terminator.

Indeed, all the evidence so far is that the benefits of the coming change will be concentrated among a relatively small elite, thus exacerbating the current trend towards greater levels of inequality.

This was a point stressed by the Swiss bank UBS in a report launched in Davos. It notes that there will be a “polarisation of the labour force as low-skill jobs continue to be automated and this trend increasingly spreads to middle class jobs.”

Fourth Industrial Revolution brings promise and peril for humanity

Yes. But. Maybe we can direct and control it? Change our economic system, make sure ALL humanity benefits?

Turn the nightmare into a dream?

Ok, I asked (replied to you) earlier, but I will ask again: what trade-offs are you willing to make? "Turn the nightmare into a dream" is gonna involve a cost, but more importantly, a trade-off. What say, you??

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: Ohanka
a reply to: strongfp

Are you sure you wouldn't enjoy your own automated kitchen? And a robot cook making star quality food in your own home? These things are gonna be standard like dishwashers soon...

Robotic chef can cook Michelin star food in your kitchen by mimicking world's best cooks

A smartphone-controlled robotic chef that can cook world-class food using recipes downloaded from an online store sounds like pure science fiction - but the robot is real, will go on sale in 2017 and just made me a crab bisque.

It is hard to put into words exactly how much the Moley robotic chef feels like it is from the future. A pair of robotic arms suspend from above a conventional kitchen with hob, oven, work surface and sink. They can match the dexterity of human hands, work just as quickly as a professional chef, and are issued commands by an iPhone app.

I hate it. I prefer my own or my fiancées cooking. You can tell something that is "mechanically made to perfection" and it always lacks something. Or that's my feeling anyway l.

I'm watching Grapes of Wrath on AMC and I couldn't help but think of this thread. It seems, once again, history is doomed to repeat.

originally posted by: underwerks

originally posted by: Ohanka

originally posted by: underwerks
Capitalism will be the end of conservatism.

Kind of ironic.

True.

It will also be the end of most of the human race. Since the ultra rich elites that stand to benefit the most from this will no longer have need for the livestock.

The rich will become the food before that happens.

Nearly GMO free, newly harvested organs in old age, less fresh Soylent Grün candidates!

a reply to: soficrow

Why educate the slaves when we have AI to take over?

We The People will not be needed anylonger, I foresee a war coming soon, or a mass manmade plague coming to lower the world populations.

Just like the Georgia guidestones talk about.

Just something to think about.

a reply to: soficrow

Turn the nightmare into a dream?

Why not? You've brought up a few good points and I'd add open-source culture and direct democracy to the list, this surely are revolutionary times.

Overall, these results give some indication that the common conjecture that citizens demand direct democracy seems to be correct.

Popular Support for Direct Democracy in Europe

Industry in France and Germany should embrace open source, the governments of both countries say in the closing statement of the German-French digital conference in Berlin on 13 December. Open source is a key driver for digital innovation, the countries say.

France, Germany promote open source in industry

#GoodNewsNextWeek
Something for James and James, innit?

I had suggested to my former boss, one of the founders of a dee oh dee related company, about a very small type of drone. I said "I think you could make killer drones real cheap". All you need is something that could carry the weight of a 22 bullet and match the infrared profile of a person below it and find the head. Have the drones coordinate and pick individual targets. It could easily fit in the palm of your hand. The bullet faces down, drone flies over the person up to "x" ft above (or directly above) and fires. I think it could be done very very cheaply.

There was silence in the room and long stares.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: soficrow

Hi Soficrow!

“I am less concerned with Terminator scenarios - if current trends continue, people are going to rise up well before the machines do,” said MIT economist Andrew McAfee on the first day at Asilomar.

My counter is this.

Since machines are programmed to fulfill the tasks programmed into them by the overlords, they will make them more lethal and more numerous. Imagine swarms of micro drones unleashed on "riots" and or revolts, each a micro attack drone armed with a mall smart brain that seeks out and attaches to people in the crowd, detonating a small warhead, lethal injection, gas cloud, electric shock.

The options are pretty much endless, the clouds of swarming micro drones don't require airstrikes, tanks, helicopter gun ships, mines or boots on ground to be anywhere near the area targeted. In the future sic fi of Terminator, the "machines " are portrayed as huge tracked vehicles grinding thru the rubble like bulldozers, "John taught us ways to dust them".

Thats not possible with clouds of little screaming attack drones descending from 20000 feet, each programmed to seek out and kill one individual person in a crowd.

Most certainly a "sky net" approach and completely undeveloped as yet.

a reply to: tikbalang

Monetarily yes. Impact on the economy no.

a reply to: cenpuppie

No i meant the middle class in the US are parasites

Edit: Yes, yes, or with the same judgment you pronounce you will be judged; and with the measure you use it will be measured to you..

I always kind of though why China would poison its lands and rivers the way they do and this whole technology ruining the middle class makes sense, China is industrial all thanks to its export of goods and cheap manual labour and it is working towards a middle class framework but sort of not really able to have the Union reforms and civil movement the west had for years.
What I'd like to put forward is that maybe the industrial powerhouse post ww2 USA invested and aided china in it's development of factory's and technologies knowing full well that they would be the ones with the most to lose and the least to gain in their environment; and the communist government of China either didn't think it through, or was all for the quick boost in industry leading to todays trend of Upper class Chinese going on a "fresh air" vacation.
This would leave a market for cheaper priced goods for the world while also leaving americans to focus on v8's. instead of the cheaper 4 cylinder nonsense and leaving the swedish people with an inline 5 cylinder in their volvos made with top quality swedish steel?
I feel for us all but maybe this whole border clamping going on the world over is because certain countries will be able to afford these mega robotic infrastructure projects whereas other governments will have such a cheap labour force that they won't need or be pushed to have its leaders invest in that sort of thing. And the Illuminati ploy would be to keep those borders open so that the opportunity to find itself in a spot where the democratic process would not need high tech robot super factorys...

originally posted by: BeefNoMeat

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: PublicOpinion

originally posted by: PublicOpinion
a reply to: soficrow

The 4th industrialisation is a special kind of terminator.

Indeed, all the evidence so far is that the benefits of the coming change will be concentrated among a relatively small elite, thus exacerbating the current trend towards greater levels of inequality.

This was a point stressed by the Swiss bank UBS in a report launched in Davos. It notes that there will be a “polarisation of the labour force as low-skill jobs continue to be automated and this trend increasingly spreads to middle class jobs.”

Fourth Industrial Revolution brings promise and peril for humanity

Yes. But. Maybe we can direct and control it? Change our economic system, make sure ALL humanity benefits?

Turn the nightmare into a dream?

Ok, I asked (replied to you) earlier, but I will ask again: what trade-offs are you willing to make? "Turn the nightmare into a dream" is gonna involve a cost, but more importantly, a trade-off. What say, you??

Sorry I missed that. ...I'm really the wrong person to ask that question of as I've already made many (most?) of the needed cutbacks - I do have phone/internet but mostly am removed from mainstream economy, bike or walk except in winter, only use public/shared transportation every couple of weeks, grow a lot of my own food, do not buy processed food and products, use vinegar-baking soda for cleaning, etc.

...Happy to live almost ascetically, with books, internet, art and other materials/supplies, and use my time to keep learning and producing - but definitely would love a house-bot for cooking and cleaning.

a reply to: soficrow

You're what I'd call an 'early adopter' and that's admirable

I think the semantics of my term "trade-off" could be the reason you state, "I'm really the wrong person to ask that question..." - you've made a number of what I call trade-offs. Again, kudos.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Nice work, Awesome video, great technology (of the future). I saw holes big enough to drive a truck thru, nonetheless thanks for sharing it with me.