What happens when AGI is able to think better than us? Will governments close schools and universities as its no longer economically useful?
The vast majority of everything you learn before university isn't that useful if all you care about is creating robots for your economy.
> What happens when AGI ...
What happens IF AGI ...
On the other hand, US schools' form (as distinct from the content they teach) - the schedules, the bells, the desks, the disciplinary expectations - has not been the subject of much debate or wide controversy, but it does encode and enculcate a particular value system. It was adapted from the Prussian model, and specifically intended to create docile industrial workers. That may have been a good idea at the time.
Now, of course, that docile industrial workers are not so economically important, that model doesn't make much sense. The public school system as a whole (I'm painting in broad strokes, and know myself of honorable exceptions) has shifted its purpose to (it's a spectrum, based on prevailing socio-economic conditions, and the individual kids in question) baby-sitting or incarceration.
I wish I weren't so cynical, but I've had too broad an experience with too large a cross-section of too many US public schools not to be.
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°I've seen the insides of a lot, though not so many, UK schools, and my limited impression is that their system is in a better place than the US, but bears the same flaws. (And that a special hell should await the members of the 2010 Conservative government who promulgated school consolidations.)
Fifteen years ago I taught ESL to a lot of German kids (from both University and non-U tracks), and was highly impressed with them, and with what they told me about their educational system. That impression is old, though, and I don't know how things might have changed in the meantime.
I have a good friend with a six-year old going to school in France. I like what she tells me about their system.
* Occasionally the term effectively meaning only 'all men regardless of social class'. Perhaps related to the purpose of disincentivizing violent uprisings.
One lesson of history is that you cannot simply leave advocacy for self-interest in another's hands, as regardless of how much 'better' they may know, they do not know you and your priorities better than yourself. That was essentially already attempted in feudal past essentially. You need at very least the ability to choose your advocate. This makes education a necessity for a self-governing people. There was also another trope around the Great Depression claiming that democracy was 'obsolete' from industrialization and its top-down organization vs cottage industries. Lets not repeat history in falling for that again.
But even if we abandon such lofty principles there would still be a reason for education even if AGI does it better. Having people capable of fighting and/or maintaining the swarms of would still be essential for even cynical reasons of military power and monopoly on violence. It wouldn't just be using humans as canon fodder - most of the military manpower is logistical and the tail has only been growing longer in the tooth-to-tail ratio thanks to technological advancement. That technology is so dominant should highlight its power, considering just how effective raw numbers are in military science.
Probably only for big corps and govts.
But humans are able to exercise a ton of thinking with remarkably low energy levels a day. And the calories of energy humans consume are also used primarily for physical mechanisms like movement, breathing, etc. so the energy requirements for pure thought is even less.
Why should improved AGIs in the future consume any more energy? Besides, AGIs across the world can communicate with each other. So once one AI computes something theoretically it should never need to do it again. It can tap into the answer saved by some different AI at some point in the recent past further reducing energy needs.
I really don’t see why AI energy consumption should be too high.
An AI life coach cannot guide you for if you would prefer having a large family, being part of a DINK couple, or remain single for the rest of your life. It can tell you the odds of success of living off of a band are low and to prepare backup plans,and that being a chartered accountant is a more reliable source of income but it cannot tell you what the right decision is to attempt.