Matt, On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Matt Mahoney <[email protected]>wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Steve Richfield > >> If my employer didn't let me publish my work > >> open source and unencumbered, I could just retire now (since I can > >> afford to) and nothing would change. > > > > ... until the economy pancakes and your savings become worthless. > > I am not so pessimistic. For every dollar now in circulation, there are about 5 dollars stashed in unproductive savings by corporations and countries who believe that the economy is SO bad that it isn't worth investing in anything. Then even includes outfits like Apple Computer, who would rather buy its own stock back than invest in its own R&D. Remember when it was announced that Apple Computer had more money in the bank than the U.S. Government? All it will take is for the economy to start to take off for this money to come out of the bank and go into investments, whereupon to maintain equilibrium there MUST be an immediate ~5:1 hyperinflation. I think the economy will continue to grow > thanks to automation. > > >> The process will be very expensive. > > > > So the big corporations will own it, now us. > > An unfortunate consequence of a free market is the unequal > distribution of wealth. No, that is an unfortunate consequence of a bribocracy. All that is needed is to make human labor worth more, e.g. by making it a bit scarce, e.g. by limiting workweeks to 30 hours. So long as there is a glut of labor, we all work for nothing. Of course, lobbyists will never let that happen. IMHO the U.S. system of government can NOT long survive automation, except through the virtual enslavement of its citizens. You and I are both contributing to that enslavement. Your advice to embrace this enslavement is noted, but rejected. > That is why we tax the rich and give to the > poor. Either way, you benefit. > You REALLY haven't looked at the details of this. > > But if you can understand why the economy is growing even as machines > do our jobs, then I think you will see new opportunities. > Things have been on a long gradual downhill slide for the last half century. I see no changing this trend. > > My suggestion would be to open source Dr. Eliza and build a web > interface where people can interact with it and add to its knowledge > base. Maybe it won't be very good at first, but it will improve over > time. I tried that, but NO ONE was interested in participating. You see, people are interested in THEIR AI project, not someone else's AI project. Don't worry for now how it is going to make money. You are > selling your skills. Maybe some opportunity will come of it, > and maybe not. Apparently you don't see, or choose not to see, how sad this situation truly is. When I got into programming in the 1960s, a typical interview consisted of them explaining what they wanted, and asking me if I could build it. If I answered "yes", then I got the job. I lived like a king back then, without any thought to long-term financial stability in a market that was SO short of highly skilled personnel. If our economy weren't so screwed up, this could be happening right now. The present situation is entirely an artificial situation created by idiots at the helm of our economy. However, before this can happen, we MUST first go through a ~5:1 inflation if/when the economy turns around, and that number is constantly growing. The politicians are tenaciously hanging onto the status quo, stopping for years, maybe forever, the vibrancy of our past economy. Steve ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
