Schools and universities were supposed to have non-economic purposes including theoretically governance. An old trope that was used to justify monarchies and nobility was the ignorance of the masses. That meme wound up dying out both from the middle classes and from the rise of universal* suffrage demonstrating that it had a huge role in ensuring stability as it gave an outlet for pressure other than violent uprisings. In the US at least that was part of the reason for public education. The other part being that they didn't want to leave the educational infrastructure in the hands of the Catholic school system for fear that it would leave them controlled by 'papists'.
* Occasionally the term effectively meaning only 'all men regardless of social class'. Perhaps related to the purpose of disincentivizing violent uprisings.
One lesson of history is that you cannot simply leave advocacy for self-interest in another's hands, as regardless of how much 'better' they may know, they do not know you and your priorities better than yourself. That was essentially already attempted in feudal past essentially. You need at very least the ability to choose your advocate. This makes education a necessity for a self-governing people. There was also another trope around the Great Depression claiming that democracy was 'obsolete' from industrialization and its top-down organization vs cottage industries. Lets not repeat history in falling for that again.
But even if we abandon such lofty principles there would still be a reason for education even if AGI does it better. Having people capable of fighting and/or maintaining the swarms of would still be essential for even cynical reasons of military power and monopoly on violence. It wouldn't just be using humans as canon fodder - most of the military manpower is logistical and the tail has only been growing longer in the tooth-to-tail ratio thanks to technological advancement. That technology is so dominant should highlight its power, considering just how effective raw numbers are in military science.
* Occasionally the term effectively meaning only 'all men regardless of social class'. Perhaps related to the purpose of disincentivizing violent uprisings.
One lesson of history is that you cannot simply leave advocacy for self-interest in another's hands, as regardless of how much 'better' they may know, they do not know you and your priorities better than yourself. That was essentially already attempted in feudal past essentially. You need at very least the ability to choose your advocate. This makes education a necessity for a self-governing people. There was also another trope around the Great Depression claiming that democracy was 'obsolete' from industrialization and its top-down organization vs cottage industries. Lets not repeat history in falling for that again.
But even if we abandon such lofty principles there would still be a reason for education even if AGI does it better. Having people capable of fighting and/or maintaining the swarms of would still be essential for even cynical reasons of military power and monopoly on violence. It wouldn't just be using humans as canon fodder - most of the military manpower is logistical and the tail has only been growing longer in the tooth-to-tail ratio thanks to technological advancement. That technology is so dominant should highlight its power, considering just how effective raw numbers are in military science.