Hacker News Reader

Comment by AndrewKemendo | Hacker News Reader

If you haven’t figured it out by now the future of all work is transfer learning and encoding human action so that all possible action is mechanized and commoditized.

I’ve been obsessed with this problem for the better part of 20 years

The fact that we’re finally starting to see it realized is very exciting

View on HN

It’d be nice if folks like yourself were equally obsessed with the systemic harms that would come about from solving or addressing this problem rather than charging full-speed ahead into the unknown at everyone else’s expense.

Problems aren’t solely technological in nature, nor are their impacts and solutions. Never forget the humans behind the models.

What’s that look like in your mind?

It's understanding impact before taking action, especially on issues at scale (like labor displacement/replacement technologies). It's being vocal about shaping society in ways that reduce harms that naturally occur from inventions and technological revolutions instead of pawning it off to "other experts" or the workers themselves. It's engaging stakeholders beyond your comfort zone and social circles to build consensus, shape movements, and mitigate damage done while amplifying the good that would come from such a profound change. It's slowing or stopping work if society refuses to adapt, or targeting your output to harm those blocking the transformations needed to protect the commoners and guarantee prosperity is shared equally instead of hoarded. It's ostracizing those who choose to pursue such selfish ends while remaining willfully ignorant of (or worse, deliberately working towards) the harms they'll cause to others, applying negative pressure to influence positive reforms or warning others of the harm they'll incur by engaging in such socially-hostile behaviors.

At its core, it's about understanding (the metaphorical) you are not a single person but a cog in a much larger machine, and that your actions reverberate throughout that machine in ways that are largely predictable, at least for a reasonable number of next-order impacts. Putting aside emotional intelligence like empathy and compassion for a bit, the practical intelligence needed to solve these tasks at a scale where robots or machines can displace labor implies a similar capacity to understand the harms and impacts of said solutions on a populace. To focus solely on solving the problem before you rather than acknowledging the impact it will have beyond you is to willfully reject accountability in favor of achievement, and we have enough vainglorious chuds in technology as-is.

I wrote a whole ass paper covering all of this that got significant coverage and discussion here on HN if you search for it

https://kemendo.com/Myth-of-Scarcity.html

So I’m pretty sure I’ve got it covered. Good ideas though

You asked me a question, and I answered. You didn't say, "could you read this paper of mine and see where we might differ or what my blindspots are", you just gave me a throwaway one-liner that, in hindsight, seems to have been little more than a tee-up for this exact response.

I'll add said paper to my reading list, at least.

Definitely not a tee up cause whether you read it or not it’s fine by me just a follow up since you took the effort to write it out

If you want the deeper math then read my GTC paper

I read that, and it’s one thing to advocate for relaxation over scarcity when, say, the Gini index shows decreasing inequity.

But the organized right-wingers regularly talking about scarcity. The unelected deep state DOGE operatives who have never run for office. Does contradicting the narrative about scarcity necessarily mean undermining the top billionaires?

That’s up to the masses. I’ve done what I can so far and so far its working

You should be concerned and not excited. This future might be near than we can imagine and we're just accelerating things without thinking about the consequences.

What specific consequences are you anticipating?

Straight out of Black Mirror.

Horrific dystopian take.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com