> Not having to be a wage slave to survive is a good thing for humanity.
I mean, sure, that's one of the two paths discussed in "Manna" by Marshall Brain. Within the book it's called "The Australia Project"; a kind of utopia.
Myself and the OP are more worried about the other path: a dystopia in which the majority of people are forced into something much worse than wage slavery by those in control of the thinking machines. A dystopia not unlike the one that led to the "Great Revolt" in the Dune series.
> Myself and the OP are more worried about the other path: a dystopia in which the majority of people are forced into something much worse than wage slavery by those in control of the thinking machines.
My fear is that nobody will remain in control of the thinking machines. Imagine an AI agent for hire which maintains its own cryptocurrency accounts and pays its own cloud hosting bills. That's the future I'm worried about.
> A dystopia not unlike the one that led to the "Great Revolt" in the Dune series.
I'm glad you brought this up; I've found the term 'Butlerian Jihad' coming increasingly to mind when I read AI threads on HN. It's interesting to think about a future where we potentially put prohibitions on the use of AI for moral reasons.
> the majority of people are forced into something much worse than wage slavery by those in control of the thinking machines.
This is why it is important that we ensure everyone has collective control of the means of production (through voluntary means - a federation of collectives that agree to trade with one another as much as possible).
I mean, sure, that's one of the two paths discussed in "Manna" by Marshall Brain. Within the book it's called "The Australia Project"; a kind of utopia.
Myself and the OP are more worried about the other path: a dystopia in which the majority of people are forced into something much worse than wage slavery by those in control of the thinking machines. A dystopia not unlike the one that led to the "Great Revolt" in the Dune series.