JBR
Senior Member
Fortune magazine reported that Elon Musk had this to say about AI and the human future. "AI might be what wipes out humanity, but it could also create a utopia where no one needs to work and everybody is paid a 'universal high income'.” Elon Musk says AI will create a future where ‘no job is needed’: ‘The AI will be able to do everything’
I'm not misanthropic and I shy away from getting trapped in misanthropy. There are many people I know whom I respect & deeply appreciate, and many more I've met whom I respect. Still, my observation of people is that some handle freedom supremely well and some definitely do not. I've lived in various sorts of communities — large cities, small towns, rural "unincorporated" areas. So I've encountered the spectrum. People can live what I'd call humane, charitable, even (in some sense) elegant lives at various income levels, but some just do not do so no matter how much discretionary income they have.
My region had a big black-market pot industry for at least two decades. In very many cases it afforded a quite substantial income to people who didn't have much legal work & income, or had none at all. By which I mean income between $30,000 and $100,000 a year (in some cases, I'm sure much more than that). I've been told that if one wasn't stupid, and paid attention to the plants and channels for sale, $50,000 was easy. A small fraction of those people got arrested, tried & convicted. If they were caught at all, usually it just meant the police would confiscate their plants and maybe their growing equipment.
I've got nothing against the cannabis plant itself. At the same time, that under-the-table way of making a living afforded more freedom than a lot of us working types felt we had. I can also tell you that some of those growers were very kind, sweet people, but some were incorrigible, dangerous types. Some people psychologically require a contributing role in human society (or their community), some don't care about contributing anything positive at all. Some people are outstandingly responsible, some don't comprehend the concept of responsibility.
I don't see all humans as villains just waiting to be unchained from the necessity of work. There isn't just one identifiable 'human nature'... there are many variants. I could illustrate the risk that I feel is there in Musk's utopian possibility by other examples that have nothing to do with freedom derived from illegal activity. But I'm more interested in other people's thoughts.
I'm not misanthropic and I shy away from getting trapped in misanthropy. There are many people I know whom I respect & deeply appreciate, and many more I've met whom I respect. Still, my observation of people is that some handle freedom supremely well and some definitely do not. I've lived in various sorts of communities — large cities, small towns, rural "unincorporated" areas. So I've encountered the spectrum. People can live what I'd call humane, charitable, even (in some sense) elegant lives at various income levels, but some just do not do so no matter how much discretionary income they have.
My region had a big black-market pot industry for at least two decades. In very many cases it afforded a quite substantial income to people who didn't have much legal work & income, or had none at all. By which I mean income between $30,000 and $100,000 a year (in some cases, I'm sure much more than that). I've been told that if one wasn't stupid, and paid attention to the plants and channels for sale, $50,000 was easy. A small fraction of those people got arrested, tried & convicted. If they were caught at all, usually it just meant the police would confiscate their plants and maybe their growing equipment.
I've got nothing against the cannabis plant itself. At the same time, that under-the-table way of making a living afforded more freedom than a lot of us working types felt we had. I can also tell you that some of those growers were very kind, sweet people, but some were incorrigible, dangerous types. Some people psychologically require a contributing role in human society (or their community), some don't care about contributing anything positive at all. Some people are outstandingly responsible, some don't comprehend the concept of responsibility.
I don't see all humans as villains just waiting to be unchained from the necessity of work. There isn't just one identifiable 'human nature'... there are many variants. I could illustrate the risk that I feel is there in Musk's utopian possibility by other examples that have nothing to do with freedom derived from illegal activity. But I'm more interested in other people's thoughts.
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