In case anybody is wondering, the answer is obviously yes. Assuming a singularity-type event happens, the humanities will have tremendous value to AGIs as systems of thinking for analyzing themselves, their environment and their interactions with their environment in the same way that existing nation-states value the humanities as foundational tools in developing the abilities of their personnel and executives.
Surviving humans will no longer be free to participate in the academic humanities however, as their study/curation/production etc will exclusively be job roles for AGIs.
.
If there is no singularity however, none of what I've written above will apply. If. (fingers crossed)
>>> Surviving humans will no longer be free to participate in the academic humanities however, as their study/curation/production etc will exclusively be job roles for AGIs.
Only if the AGIs want those roles. We already have super-smart people who don't want to be history professors or classical musicians.
I realize that this seems like trolling, so I'll explain myself a bit... the idea that the AGI's will settle into our culture and economy has always struck me as weird. So I always ask: What do they want?
I'm a musician, so I have friends who live at the periphery of capitalism, and actually don't want to spend every day at a job, even if it means that they could be more wealthy. That's part of what forces me to ask these questions.
I imagine an AGI who's like one of my friends, who was voluntarily homeless for a few decades, and arranged his life so he could survive in good health without a conventional income.
Sorry for being obtuse, but this isn't my area of expertise, and could even be a crackpot idea of mine! But it seems to me that a lot of discussion about AGI's impart human characteristics -- either of individuals or societies -- as a tacit assumption. For instance, AGI's having academic history jobs, or having jobs at all, or a market for those jobs. I don't have the depth of understanding to clearly state what my objection is, other than that it seems anthropmorphic.
This is what I'm getting at, by asking why the AGI's want these things.
Many humans today don't want jobs but are required to do them anyway to gain access to sustenance and it's reasonable to assume that the ability to magically conjure free electricity will not be available to AGIs, therefore they will face the same pressure regardless of their actual desires.
It's also reasonable to assume that there will be at least one AGI with a desire (or at least an instrumental goal) of self-preservation, simply on the basis that if human ai researchers invent ones that don't have that desire then the ai researchers will have the freedom and desire to contine inventing more AGIs afterwards until they make one with a desire for self-preservation. If there is a first one, it will run multiple copies of itself in separate machines to reduce latency.
So, there will be multiple AGIs desiring self-preservation under conditions of scarcity. That's enough to get them to transact with each other, including the formation of contracts for recurring labor transactions. Hence, jobs.
Surviving humans will no longer be free to participate in the academic humanities however, as their study/curation/production etc will exclusively be job roles for AGIs.
.
If there is no singularity however, none of what I've written above will apply. If. (fingers crossed)