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Tog's Paradox

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190 points adzicg | 1 comments | 22 Oct 24 12:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source
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nine_k ◴[22 Oct 24 14:31 UTC] No.41914693[source]▶
It looks almost as if humans have a nearly infinite backlog of things they would do if they only had time and capability, and a limit on the amount of effort they are capable of exerting per day. Then, once new tools increase their productivity and free up a bit of resources, they pick more desiderata from the backlog, and try to also accomplish that. Naturally they seek more tools for the newly-possible activities, and the loop closes.

This applies to any activity, leisure emphatically included. Travel became simpler → more vacations now involve flying a plane and thus obtaining tickets online and thus comparison-shopping, aggregating reviews of faraway places, etc → omg, vacation travel is complex again. It just allows to fulfill more of a dream.

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delichon ◴[22 Oct 24 14:39 UTC] No.41914766[source]▶
The nearly infinite backlog also means that there is nearly infinite demand for labor and Luddite adjacent arguments that labor saving technology causes persistent underemployment are invalid.
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Epa095 ◴[22 Oct 24 14:54 UTC] No.41914903[source]▶
Friendly reminder that things ended up quite shit for the actuall ludites, and the advantages only 'trickled down' after a generation or two. So I will keep being worried for everyone who works now, and their kids.
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lupire ◴[22 Oct 24 15:10 UTC] No.41915071[source]▶
Indeed. People who use Luddite as a slur are ignorant of history and (possibly unwittingly) repeating capitalist propaganda.
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1. mrguyorama ◴[22 Oct 24 19:11 UTC] No.41917608[source]▶
It's just classic "Ends justify the means" thinking. It doesn't matter that 60k people will be jobless and eventually homeless because we are not "limiting" the "advancement" of society. It's okay if people suffer today because we are reducing the global suffering of tomorrow!

Nevermind that there does not have to be any cross purposes in those two sides! We don't have to get our clogs out and beat up the AI machines, we just have to "take care of" the people who's jobs the AI machines made redundant!

Adequate social welfare and safety nets, significant opportunities to retrain in new (and otherwise expensive) fields, funding for re-homing people and entire towns that have been made redundant.

And also a willingness to agree that "tech advancement" isn't morally neutral by default.