- > But if we fully automate how to make and sell and deliver TVs and blenders and now I can get a 200" TV for $2 and a blender for $0.05 but now I don't have a job so I can't afford even a basic apartment what do we do with our society?
Delivery should be automated.
Rent would obviously crater as building housing craters too (robots making it, materials being extracted and manufactured by robots too). But again, it would still cost something (energy at very least and assuming energy is not free).
So I suspect that even if 100% is automated, we would still need little money to pay for the basics (food, shelter).
- I agree, so the prices of everything would go down. People would be unemployed. Do we plan to give some money to pay for basic stuff (food, shelter) ?
Even if the cost for food and shelter is $1 per month, if there is no revenue, it is still too expensive, right ?
I am trying to understand the speed comparison between how fast the prices will go down, vs. how fast people will lose their jobs. If job loss goes faster than the price decrease, we might have a problem to solve.
- > > Well, you still have to pay for the energy (to extract raw material and transform it into final product, and move final product into your hands). > But then you're back to having something that isn't automated. If machines do this then it's free. If you need people to do it then people have jobs.
Not sure to follow, machines need energy as input. So unless energy is free and unlimited, even if the machines run without people, there is a cost for the products. It is not free, even if that is 100% automated. At the very least you have to pay for the energy, if not for the raw materials.
> > And as we move to the "we automate everything" end of the spectrum, the number of jobs lost would increase, the taxes collected (VAT, income, capital gain, etc.) would decrease (assuming the current tax system) and yet people (employed or not) would still education, health care, social security (retirement). > But things would also cost less, in the same proportion.
Yes, things (material) and services would cost less. But still cost the energy to produce those things and services.
> Suppose healthcare is 20% of the economy, can't be automated, and we automate everything else. Then tax revenue goes down by 80%, but so do costs, so people only need 20% as much in government services or those services only cost 20% as much to provide.
Not sure why healthcare would not be 100% automated, but for the exercise, let's assume it still needs some people. Unless you also assume that unemployed people could get some ABI or SNAP from government (in US already 1 out 8 adult receives SNAP) to pay for food (cost less with 100% automation, but still cost the energy for fertilizer, tractors, transport, transformation), for shelter, etc. and pay for healthcare.
I am not sure if the gov lose 80% of its tax collection, it could sustain the population basic needs.
> Meanwhile you still need people to be doctors and nurses but not other things, so more people become doctors and nurses.
Not sure why we need doctors or nurses ? Doctors are mostly a sensor + decision tree... that speaks to the patient. I could see doctors and nurses to disappear eventually. It might take longer for robots to do surgery, but it should eventually come. So the cost should drop. Drugs manufacturing should be 100% automated too. Lab work automated.
> This drives down wages there, but that's fine when the doctors and nurses are also paying 80% less for everything. And at the lower wages you can justify more work to be done. More people do medical research, doctors get to spend more time with each patient, etc. Soon everyone has a job again. Let's even consider the hypothetical where that can't happen. There are 8 billion people and only a million jobs. No other jobs are possible, somehow. How much are those million people going to get paid? Peanuts, because like everyone else they'd have negligible living expenses and they'd be in competition with 8 billion people for who would be willing to do it for the least amount of compensation. Their payment would be something like bragging rights, or all the slots would be filled by volunteers. But in practice we would never "run out" of jobs because the supply curve always intersects with the demand curve somewhere. If demand goes down then price goes down because there is higher demand at the lower price.
I guess the disconnect, for me the end of spectrum, is that all the products and services could eventually be 100% automated without human in the loop, expect for consuming the products/services. Those 100% automated product manufacturing or services, would cost energy (electricity basically) and raw material (arguably free, just need to pick it up on the ground using some energy). So, one machine would build everything and all services, with just energy as input. If energy is not free, then products and services would cost something. How people pay for product and services ?
- Do you think that the velocity of change is different from previously ?
I am wondering if we are touching on a human biological limitation. Human are adaptable and flexible, but there is a limit to that flexibility. Some sort of biological limit on how fast we can turn around.
The technology acceleration is increasing, and I am wondering if there would be a point where the technology would evolve faster than what human biology can comprehend.
1,000 years ago, anyone could pretty much build or fix the current technology (anyone could fix a cart). 50 years ago, a majority of people could build or fix the current technology (e.g. most could fix a car). this year, a limited number of people can build or fix the current technology (e.g. how many people can fix a self driving car?) 10 years from now, a very limited number of people if any could build or fix the current technology (e.g. explain how is AI doing this thing?)
If AI evolves at the same pace, and replacing labor (robots) and services (AI), I am not sure that human would turn around? How do you think we can turn things around ?
Education ? but we are reaching the limit already of how much technology we can teach in a student lifetime. Now we could argue, that one does not need a PhD in computer science to use AI, but eventually do we even need someone to use AI ? Would AI be cheap and pervasive enough that AI would drive AI would drive AI... why would you add a 20W analog brain in the loop ?
What activity would require human involvement ? Genuinely curious how the technology acceleration in general and AI in particular would affect the economy.
- > 200 years ago, 95% of the workers in my country worked in subsistence farming. Today, only 2% are farmers.
Yes, it took some time to go from manual/animal labor (energy used is food) to mechanical labor (mostly oil energy). And oil is more energy dense than food, and tractors are more powerful than horses. And bonus points for the oil, it allowed to build fertilizers to boost productivity per acre. So, yes eventually we just need 2% to do what what 95% used to do in farming.
AI is promising to do the same but in virtually all industries (manufacturing, services, healthcare, etc.) and in a way shorten span.
Work used to be labor (human/animal) fueled by energy (food) + intelligence (human) fueled by energy (food), then labor (machine) fueled by energy (oil/electricity) + intelligence (AI) fueled by energy (electricity).
IF work is mostly done by AI/machines fueled by energy. Then work's price is mostly a function of energy price (assuming materials can be extracted/transported/transformed is also a function of energy).
If energy becomes abundant and cheap, then there is no reasons to not let AI do the work.
But then what happens to the rest of us, how the economy keeps humming ?
- Not 100% of the employees work on manufacturing, and it would crater the price of the products, so some should be able to buy ?
- By property you mean land property only or any possession (capital) ?
- One could argue that AI could replace or add to the health and retirement care work force... I am not saying it should happen, but I am trying to understand where we are going with the AI promises, and their impact on society.
If AI is so good that it can replace health and retirement care, then the price should fall to.
But basically, we would end up with AI and dark factories building gizmos to sustain and entertain humans and fixing them until they die.
I guess taxes at this point are irrelevant, AI could build new factories of factories, money would be useless.
- Yes, that has been the rule for now. But I am wondering that if the prices drop so much, but the price to pay for that abundance would be the loss of significant part of job market, then how can we keep the economy humming ?
We would need to find a way to give money to people so they can keep participating in the economy even though everything is cheap. If not UBI, we would need to find ways for the majority to do something that is not automated, and give them some coins in exchange.
For millennia the currency has been energy (human labor, then machines) and intelligence (human intelligence, then artificial intelligence). If energy and intelligence price goes down, and the amount of energy and intelligence increases, then what is left for humans to claim some reward/coins ?
- > The first is that we automate everything. This is implausible, but let's consider what would happen. Well then necessities would be free, because there is no labor cost to produce arbitrarily many solar panels or skyscrapers or mine asteroids to get unlimited raw materials etc. So then you don't need taxes because nothing costs anything.
Well, you still have to pay for the energy (to extract raw material and transform it into final product, and move final product into your hands). So unless we assume energy cost is 0 and raw materials are not scarce, the final product has a cost, and a price, now my understanding is that if everyone uses dark factories, the margin would go down, and so the gain per "company" would drop too, hence the limited tax base.
My guess is from the 2 ends of the spectrum that you listed, we are moving from "there is still work you need people to do, and then they do that, and still have jobs." to "we automate everything". And as we move to the "we automate everything" end of the spectrum, the number of jobs lost would increase, the taxes collected (VAT, income, capital gain, etc.) would decrease (assuming the current tax system) and yet people (employed or not) would still education, health care, social security (retirement).
If we do not change how we tax things, I do not see how we would sustain a society where the majority is materially (gizmos) rich, but financially poor (no job, no retirement, no social security, no education).
While dark factories keep producing high volume of gizmos for next to nothing...
I am curious how we can manage that transition, which I believe could happen way faster than politicians can move.
- What if I build and manage a dark factory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_(manufacturing)) and it produces gizmos.
Since all my competitors are also running dark factories, we compete essentially on source materials + energy (assuming we have similar design/quality). Margin would be eventually razor thin. The dark factory does not make much capital gains, even as it produces 1,000 gizmo per second.
The capital gain is not much , but since we have only a handful of employees, that is enough to pay everyone a decent wage, after paying for the factory itself, source materials and energy.
How much tax do we expect to get from this gizmo company ? 10 years ago, to produce the same gizmos, I needed 5,000 employees, the unit price was way higher, and had higher revenue. But since AI and dark factories came, the prices cratered, instead of 5,000 jobs, we only have 5 jobs to produce the same.
Sure the 4,995 unemployed might be able to afford the gizmo, but the state does not receive the same taxes. So what happens to those 4,995 unemployed people ? who is paying for their health benefits and social security (retirement) ?
I am wondering how best to solve that equation ?
- Note that Denmark would have to keep deploying more wind capacity as the country would need more electricity over time (electrification of the transportation, heat, industry, etc.). So, even if some days wind capacity does meets 100% of the electricity demand nowadays, we would need add more capacity.
- It takes time between the plan and putting it online. It is mostly due to regulations. Relax the regulations and it would be cheaper and faster.
- France is doing something similar now.
- Coming out in the late 80's was not easy in most places (maybe easier if you grew up in Manhattan or San Francisco) and AIDS was a death sentence. Lots of lives have been wasted because of the stigma and the disease.
Somehow related, I had to go through my father in-law papers after his death, and I have seen papers that probably were not meant to be seen ever. I am now part of this secret. The weird part is that I feel that I cannot talk about it to anyone in the universe. For the first time in my life, I feel the burden of keeping secret until I die. There is no therapy for it. Now, I understand how some people when tragedy strikes, have to bury it deep, to the point where they forget about it, as it is too painful to even think of it. I am at a point where I do not want to impair (drunk, high) myself and reveal the secret. I thought my life was simple, but man some unfortunate events can flip entire lives... I was a firm believer that talking the truth/facts was the best solution, and now I realize that some things better stay buried as it would generate more pain than anything.
So, some papers might not be good to keep, as you never know what it could unleash after you pass away (and that can happen anytime).
- > I would challenge any retail business to beat the 2.5% rate on their cash transactions once the various transit, security and banking fees have been factored in. Those armored trucks don't work for free.
Lots of countries are fine with charge card, connecting directly to their bank account instead of going thru intermediaries. It does not offer the flexibility of the US credit card ecosystem, but lower fees for merchants (and so for end user). It might be a matter of culture and habits. But for some the Visa/MC/Amex fees seem too high, even if most is given back to the end user, it artificially increases the prices (that is why the US Gov. charges me more if I insist on paying my US property taxes with as credit card).
- I love science and technology too. I am a bit concerned though that number of people knowing how technology actually works, is shrinking. And with AI, it is going to accelerate that shrinking. How does it end when only an handful of people know how technology effectively works ?
Are we heading to another dark age after a peak technology ?
- I cannot wait for the school bus to be a waymo, that could tell the other waymos around that it is full of vulnerable and unpredictable little humans, and to be on the watch out.
- Why not use all those forms and prefill my tax form for me ?
If I disagree, I can add/remove/update it. If I agree, I just file
Asking me to collect those documents and reports the different numbers into a form, is not efficient, error prone and time/money consuming.
Even if 100% automated, there might still be a residual cost to building as it needs energy (assuming than raw material is free). I do not think that because the building would be not free, it would allow human to compete (too slow, inaccurate, etc.)