Hacker News Reader

Comment by tarruda | Hacker News Reader

> which I consider hugely positive; AI that is,

Why do you think AI is hugely positive?

Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I see no good outcomes from the excessive automation that will result from advances in AI.

It can make the world better to the very few that are in a position to leverage it, but will result in jobs disappearing for most of humanity.

View on HN

We are incredibly wealthy by historical standards (see also Gapminder's long term trends linked from the OP https://www.gapminder.org/facts/improvements/) because all of the jobs of yore have disappeared, many times over, from "excessive" automation and other productivty increases. More please!

The point of life is not to have a job. Although exactly what the point is after that is a religious question and hotly contested. Although uncomfortable in the short term, there is simply no point people doing work that could be profitably automated. There is great benefit to be had from abundance.

So far pretty much all the economic upside has gone to the masses. The wealthy have much higher nominal wealth and no way to use it for themselves that hasn't existed in all of history. In fact, the lack of modern pyramids like what was built in Egypt suggests they're using resources even more consistently for the common good instead of monumental waste (heh).

Off the top of my head, protein folding and drug discovery have a huge potential to be extremely positive.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com