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The last time my family was replaced by technology

339 points · 641 comments · megalomanu

  1. zug_zug · · focus · HN ↗
    And my great great grandpa thought horses would lose all their jobs to cars. And they all did and it was never the same again.

    There’s no quick answers, but intuitively I think we all get that the % of jobs not doable by AI and robotics approaches 0 over time.

    1. Pet_Ant · · focus · HN ↗
      Worse, it was just almost all horses. There are a few in Central Park pulling tourists and that’s enough for the Pollyanna’s to point to and go “See! We’ll be fine!”
      1. ForHackernews · · focus · HN ↗
        Presumably you are a human, not a horse, yes? Presumably there is more to your life than dragging around carts all day every day?

        HN: A site full of bold futurists where it's easier to imagine the end of the humanity than the end of capitalism.

        1. layla5alive · · focus · HN ↗
          Because the capitalists have very big guns and a monopoly on violence.

          Its very easy to imagine a better world.

          Its much harder to imagine the Scrooges in power willfully giving it up so that we can build that better world.

          1. ForHackernews · · focus · HN ↗
            It's okay, I'll just use AI to vibengineer a viral basilisk that only targets those who violate the NAP.
          2. AnimalMuppet · · focus · HN ↗
            It's not just the Scrooges in power. Previous attempts to actually make a better world often made a worse one, and not just because of capitalist opposition.
            1. layla5alive · · focus · HN ↗
              If you mean attempts like centralized communism - absolutely - and the failure mode should have been obvious from human nature: centralizing great power incentivizes corruption.

              We don't fully know the failure modes of every alternative yet, but that doesn't mean powerful central governments + capitalism is the best alternative.

              1. ipsod · · focus · HN ↗
                Interestingly, the Amish shape their lives around this sort of thing. With any technology, they ask themselves, "Does this make us dependent?" If the answer is yes, they refuse it.
                1. bluGill · · focus · HN ↗
                  They are more and more adopting modern technology. And where they haven't directly they have found ways to use it and be just as dependent while appearing to not. Go visit one and you discover they want to borrow your phone to buy things from Amazon...
                  1. ipsod · · focus · HN ↗
                    As it turns out, even the Amish "live in a society".
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