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Comment by gaganyaan | Hacker News Reader

Adapt or die.

Not actually, of course. We need a social safety net that lets people adapt without fear of starvation/homelessness/etc. But all of this bitching about "oh no, things are changing" just comes across as "oh no, this newfangled horseless carriage threatens my livelihood as a buggy whip manufacturer". Posts like this just make my eyes roll:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35492730

We're headed towards a future where all of the drudgery is automated away and we can be free to pursue all of the hobbies that we never have time for because we're too busy working on shit that doesn't really matter.

Accept it. Love it. It's happening even if you don't, so you might as well.

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I disagree. I don’t think this will be a Star Trek future. There won’t be a post scarcity world or UBI.

We’re headed for a world with a GINI coefficient approaching 1. Those people aren’t going to give away their wealth. They are the new Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar.

You think we can vote our way out of it? The politicians will be pawns of the rich. Rebellion? The men who will fight will be employed for security purposes already - they’ll have jobs and status. A human fighter will always be cheaper than a machine. Why should they fight for a bunch of obsolete poor people?

> We're headed towards a future where all of the drudgery is automated away and we can be free to pursue all of the hobbies that we never have time for because we're too busy working on shit that doesn't really matter.

I don't really think it's true. ChatGPT has been out for a while, and it still takes me the same time to do chores. My commuting still takes as long as it did before.

The following quote was written in 1930, in the New York Times:

"Some day no one will have to work more than two days a week... The human being can consume so much and no more. When we reach the point when the world produces all the goods that it needs in two days, as it inevitably will, we must curtail our production of goods and turn our attention to the great problem of what to do with our new leisure."

Given the advances in productivity over the last century, why do I have to work 5 days a week?

I read somewhere that we modern people DO have much more leisure time -- we just decide to take it all in a block at the end of our lives.

(In other words, instead of retiring at 65 and dying at 68, like someone might have in 1930, we're more likely to retire at 65 and die at 78.)

Yes, right, so much free time to pursue your passions when you are unemployed.

Having some compassion for people losing their jobs isn't uncalled for. Especially when the same is going to start happening with programmers soon.

How old are you?

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