I agree. AI optimists like Kurzweil usually minimize the socio-political challenges. They acknowledge equality concerns in theory, but hope that abundance will leverage them in practice (if your share is only a little planet that’s more than enough to satisfy your needs). But a less optimistic scenario would be that the vast majority of the population would be entirely left behind, subjected to the fate that knew horses in Europe and USA after WWI. May be some little sample of pre-AI humans could be kept in a reserve for curiosity, as long as they’re not too annoying, but it’s a huge leap of faith to hope that the powerful will be charitable.
In reality, I think that it’s unlikely that a self-actualizing AI system of sufficient caliber will necessarily respect contemporary property relations, for basically the same reason that a hypothetical post-AGI economical elite doesn’t necessarily support the underclass: it doesn’t have to.
I just want to throw a wrench in the “everyone will necessarily be taken care of” narrative, which is promulgated with an entirely unwarranted degree of confidence by people who (superficially) benefit from everyone believing it to be true.
I agree. AI optimists like Kurzweil usually minimize the socio-political challenges. They acknowledge equality concerns in theory, but hope that abundance will leverage them in practice (if your share is only a little planet that’s more than enough to satisfy your needs). But a less optimistic scenario would be that the vast majority of the population would be entirely left behind, subjected to the fate that knew horses in Europe and USA after WWI. May be some little sample of pre-AI humans could be kept in a reserve for curiosity, as long as they’re not too annoying, but it’s a huge leap of faith to hope that the powerful will be charitable.
In reality, I think that it’s unlikely that a self-actualizing AI system of sufficient caliber will necessarily respect contemporary property relations, for basically the same reason that a hypothetical post-AGI economical elite doesn’t necessarily support the underclass: it doesn’t have to.
I just want to throw a wrench in the “everyone will necessarily be taken care of” narrative, which is promulgated with an entirely unwarranted degree of confidence by people who (superficially) benefit from everyone believing it to be true.