"Learn how to code" is the new "if you just get a degree you will have a good job"
If everyone takes that advice like everyone took the college advice you will have a shitload of coders and not enough jobs
That will force the wages of coders down to the point you will be begging for microsoft to take your code for free just to have your name out there.
Its what happened to writing and its part of why its hard to get a paid gig, too many writers willing to work for free.
So "learn how to code" is bad advice, Jobs are going away and they are never coming back we need to address this.
We need a universal dividend on all of the automated labor on earth paid out to all of its citizens
@Laurelai Eh... I'm not really sold on basic income. My concern is thats it's a bandaid, on a problem where we need much more than just a band-aid. Like, suppose we pass basic income. And it's good enough to work for everyone. What then?
Well, then we get a decade or so where people think the problem's solved, while wealth and power continue to accumulate into ever fewer hands, until the owners of said wealth and power decide they really don't need the rest of us anymore. What then? :/
@Angle I honestly think thats bad logic because people are starving and dying of shit they dont need to be right now, and its much harder to organize for a revolutionary movement when your comrades are starving sick and disconnected.
@Laurelai Hmm, thats a good point. Band aids and temporary solutions do have their place. I just don't want people to go thinking this is all that needs to be done, when it really isn't. :/
@cute_weeds @Laurelai Another point I've seen made is that there are too many ways to bleed money out of people - raising rents, raising prices, etc, etc. We might be better off just offering free services - free food, free transportation, etc? :/
@cute_weeds @Laurelai But would it? What if all it does is expend a whole lot of political capital and give people another reason to go about "See! Socialism doesn't work!"
@Angle @cute_weeds Because it will work. Its worked where its been tried, in fact when they find out how well it works capitalists try to kill trials of it. All you need to do is get it enacted and people will see with their own eyes how well it works.
@Laurelai @cute_weeds Do you have any links on hand? I'd love to read about that. :P
@cute_weeds @Laurelai If not thats cool, I can look it up myself. But if you have something cool bookmarked I'd love to see it. XD
@Angle @cute_weeds i believe it was the Mincome experiments in manitoba
@cute_weeds @Angle Breathing room is what we need right now, how you keep the capitalist class from taking the gains we make, is by making more and more bold demands. Today its single payer and UBI, tomorrow, its nationalizing healthcare and utilities etc etc. You keep on the offensive and you dont stop until there arent any capitalist left.
@Angle @cute_weeds We can do that. But for now stabilizing the situation so we dont tailspin into a dictatorship powered by robot labor is kind of important.
@Laurelai @cute_weeds Mmm, I agree - but I'm not certain that UBI /is/ that stabilization. It might end up being just another piece of the problem. I guess ultimately my position is "This is a very complicated and very difficult problem and it won't be easily solved, and we need to think very hard about it, not just push the first solution we find."
...and ask people to contribute back reasonable amounts of their time / expertise / money-if-they-start-to-do-better / other-resources, counting on their innate goodness -- which is apparently not just underrated but actively denied by capitalist propaganda.
@woozle @cute_weeds @Laurelai Mmm, I generally agree? I'm leery about relying too much on people innate goodness, though. Not because I don't believe in it, but because that effectively rewards the people who are jerks and don't contribute... :/
Yes. There have to be checks to prevent parasitism. My point is not that we should trust everyone, but that you can trust *most* people to want to help.
@woozle @Angle @cute_weeds Also bad logic jobs are going away and they arent coming back and a lot of people are becoming more and more unemployable. We have to stop placing so much value on being able to work.
I've actually been saying this for several years now: we have to stop depending on "employment" as a means of allocating basic goods and services. It's not working anymore.
@woozle @Laurelai @cute_weeds Hey have you seen my comment thread with @sahil? You might find it interesting. It tackles much these same issues. XD
@Angle @Laurelai @cute_weeds @sahil
The one about AI/scarcity? https://witches.town/users/Angle/updates/509468
@woozle @Laurelai @cute_weeds @sahil Yup! That's the one! XD
@Laurelai @woozle @cute_weeds @sahil An okay article, though I get a distinct sense of "I don't know what I'm talking about but heres an article read it maybe?" All in all, I think it argues in roughly the same direction I do, though it's a lot more optimistic than I am, especially if it thinks the problem can be solved by the government. XD
@sahil @cute_weeds @woozle @Laurelai While having AI kill us all is certainly possible, it's a problem we know about and are prepared to face. Inequality, meanwhile, is a problem we've had since the dawn of human society, and so far the closest we've come to a solution is "Slap a bunch of band-aids on it, pretend it's not there, and hope it goes away." Will that "solution" hold up when A.I. comes into play? Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it...
@Angle @sahil @cute_weeds @Laurelai
For reference, I worked in neural network research in 1990-1 when the superduperest PC we could get (for $11k+) was a 486-25 with 32 MB of RAM.
<prophetic voice>I foresaw the resurgence of neural nets...</voice>
Should have written about it somewhere. Bleh.
Seems mysterious that we don't seem to have AI which can answer basic questions like "My chair is red. What color is my chair?"
@Angle @sahil @cute_weeds @woozle @Laurelai
Highly unlikely.
Here's Kurzgesagt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSKi8HfcxEk
Here's CGP Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
(And here's my take: http://orrery.prismaticmedia.com/2017/07/12/socialism/)
@literorrery @Angle @sahil @cute_weeds @woozle If you like CGP grey watch this one. AI is recreating the resource curse in capitalist democracies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs
@Laurelai @literorrery @Angle @sahil @cute_weeds
I'm about a third of the way through, and... his model seems a bit simplistic, though he does bring up some interesting points about how power can work.
@woozle @literorrery @Angle @sahil @cute_weeds Its simplified for the sake of a video, but the source book goes into a lot more detail using historical examples
@Laurelai @Angle @cute_weeds @sahil
I think if I tried to say all the things I had to say about this, it would use up all the toots.
@woozle @Laurelai @cute_weeds @sahil Haha yeah? Maybe give us the short bversion, then? :P
@Angle @Laurelai @cute_weeds @sahil
Ok. Snippets without context; #ama:
* It's not as simple as "they will destroy us" OR "...save us"
* brain uploading will be huge, but now hugely more difficult than people like RK seem to realize
* AI: who decides what the being's goals/drives are? If it's a bigcorp, then yes, I worry
* current state of art does seem strangely like cranked-up 1990s version
That's all that fits. 54321
@Angle Lowering your fever when sick probably saves lives :)