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Jorge I Velez's avatar

Thank you for your post. You very elegantly laid out an scenario that had been swirling in my head, and I think this particular scenario became more likely after reading your post.

Your post also strengthen my desire to pivot from finance to policy. I need to figure out how to do this. I find it paramount that more people (both in power and the general populace) understand the possibilities of massive economic disruption.

I look forward to the follow ups of thos post.

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Suchet Mittal's avatar

Just spent an hour or so going through this and some of the hyperlinks I hadn't previously encountered in detail. It was truly worth a read. Really stimulating to read something that uses interdisciplinary thinking to critically analyze potential futures in the field of AI. Great work and congratulations on getting this out!

Couple questions:

1) Isn't the purpose of power accumulation by states and the elite teleologically founded in control of the populous? Isn't there then something to be said for the fact that at some point along the way to that 40% reduction in the workforce there will be a public response that will affect the automation process even if it is heavily incentivized for those in power? Maybe you agree and it is one possible "pushback" factor.

2) This might be stupid, but where does democracy factor into all this? I was expecting this article to somewhere address how a reduction in the incentive to invest in people would ultimately affect the normative state of national governance from the perspective of the "small ruling elite." Seems like a easy jump to make from the arguments you make. Obviously the dangers to democracy stemming from AI have been widely discussed, but this seems like an argument different in nature than the usual one about mis/disinformation and power-centralization (at least partially). It almost seems like you would argue that the reason democracy works is because it is beneficial to the economic elite of democracies to live in one. If it stops being so, since the freedom and prosperity of citizens is no longer imperative for the amplification of revenue, then the incentive for democracy itself falls through, no?

I may be jumping the gun if you plan on addressing this in your next post, but food for thought nonetheless.

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