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Comment by LesZedCB | Hacker News Reader

> Throughout history, technology has been a job creator—not a job destroyer

This is one argument that I have always really disagreed with. Technology doesn't inherently create jobs. Rather it makes people able to be more productive and efficient. I think that will longer stand the test of time.

Hopefully someday soon we will go beyond this need for everybody to have jobs so that they can pay for food and rent. Instead we will be able to do human things. Do projects, cool hacks, make art and music, explore the universe. Why spend all our time compensating for scarcity when robotics can do it for us?

That however is going to be a long transition. Especially one for the people in the US, who have such a heavy burdened work culture (i.e. if you aren't working you aren't valuable to society). Also shameless plug here for basic/guaranteed annual income.

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I'm not sure about the art and music making. Computers will make this too and not just better, but also personalized for your brain. I think, there will be a great depression, when even creativism becomes boring.

Being creative doesn't become boring because someone else can do it better. Just trying to express yourself is fun. If it weren't, nobody would participate in amateur hour or open mic nights.

I agree 100%. The idea of automating creativity is ludicrous. Creativity is what being human is all about and the universe we live in is infinitely vast and full of endless paths to explore.

>The idea of automating creativity is ludicrous.

No it isn't. Not anymore ludicrous than automating anything else, just far more complex in its implementation. It's not impossible.

>the universe we live in is infinitely vast and full of endless paths to explore.

Yes, but human beings are not infinite, nor is their capacity for creative thought. We're bound by finite time, space, perception, culture and neurology. Therefore, I believe human creativity is a process which can be modeled, replicated and mass produced just as human labor can. There's nothing special or magic about it, it's just a nut we haven't cracked yet. But then, there was a time when the concept of a machine doing math was unthinkable as well, and a machine doing cryptography, and a machine playing Jeopardy, etc.

Consider how formulaic much of modern popular culture is. Do you really think it's impossible for an AI, with access to the entire web and, theoretically, working neural models, to churn out an acceptable dime store novel or movie or video game? We're not talking about genius, here, we're talking about commerce. People will buy it. And if people will buy it coming from a machine, there's no longer any reason to pay humans to generate it.

It doesn't even really have to be better than what humans would produce - just acceptable.

I think the point the above posters were making is that people will continue to create for fun, even if machines are better at it.

This is exactly my point. Creativity is not a mindless endeavor in need of automation. It is the heart of human existence, no matter how finite your world view considers it.

I agree that creativity is as important to the human experience as you say. But that still doesn't mean the industry of creativity won't suffer the same drive for automation as every other, or that it can't be generated by machines. I don't think there's actually a contradiction here, people will still be creative, but more and more popular culture will be algorithmically generated - the jobs for creative work, and the support work, may not be there.

Although that does also suggest that human-generated creative works may become more valuable for their rarity.

Since the invention of mass media. most folks in the "creative industry" already work for next to nothing. Automation would only threaten the .1% of artists, musicians, and actors at the top. My band, for instance, barely makes any money, but we're in it for fun. Hatsune Miku won't put us out of work, but after a few more updates, she might replace Katy Perry.

@krapp

Here is an expert who agrees with you, and has the results to prove it:

http://vimeo.com/7441291

Being creative can also be doing things like this: http://hackaday.io/project/2021-3D%28ollar%29-Scanner

Yep. It's mine.

> I think, there will be a great depression, when even creativism becomes boring.

The entertainment industry has never been so big and it doesn't stop growing, so I guess the trend hints at the opposite. Electronic games weren't a thing 30 years ago, online games weren't a thing 10 years ago, both are now big industries.

I bet more in technology introducing new medias (e.g. Oculus) and aiding on better / cheaper / faster content creation than completely automating creative work.

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