I'm reviving this thread because AI has gone even more mainstream than when Kickle created it, and the implications are interesting.
Beyond what's been discussed here - the contribution of these technologies to a further loss of our ability to discern what's real or ontologically prior, and the possible destabilizing effects of AI on e.g., diplomacy and military escalation - there are really interesting questions of economics and philosophy (how best to live).
Since the turn of this millennium people have been preoccupied with the automation and loss of working class jobs, which is something that has observably happened, but AI at its present pace of gaining complexity and nuance seems likely to replace the professional managerial and white collar classes more quickly than the professions we all learned during the pandemic are truly essential - truck drivers, cargo ship crews, grocery store workers, nurses, oil rig workers, farmers, etc.
Lawyers for example seem a prime group to be winnowed down in number and utility by AI, but lawyers are also extremely powerful and well versed in protecting their interests as a class. This creates an interesting economic, political, and technological tension whose results may be hard to parse for years.
It will also take a long time to understand the effects of AI on global 'knowledge economy' hiring practices - will the number of people working as consultants, programmers, analysts, editors, translators, paralegals, secretaries, marketing specialists, etc., drastically diminish? It seems almost certain - but far before the scope of that diminishing is discernible, what may happen is teams of such people become much better and more efficient at their jobs by wielding the many new applications for AI that will arise. (Even if AI does not become much better, which it probably will, new applications for what already exists will be developed for decades to come.) In that case, many of these industries may simply see a slow down and freeze in new hires at the same time as they gain productivity.
Anecdotally, it seems a lot of people are struggling with a deep, if not yet fully consciously explored, dilemma of meaning and purpose, in addition to the natural economic and political anxieties of these times. It was there already but things like chatgpt have made it harder to avoid. Graphic designers, writers, and musicians who are following this developments are disheartened, because AI seems to diminish not only their economic prospects but the very significance of their creative production. I feel this acutely at times too, although another part of me feels reaffirmed in some kind of naive, romantic commitment to human produced storytelling, songs, and so on.
It is a difficult time to be a human.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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Rahz said: There may still be plenty of lawyers but I suppose there will be far fewer paralegals.
I think this is probably a good analogy for the core dynamic of what will happen. At last in the near term (3-10 years).
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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redgreenvines said: obviously we need more wars to reduce the total population, maybe Putin is onto something.
Maybe things will be resolved by aliens and/or superconductors
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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