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Techno-feudalism and the rise of AGI: A future without economic rights?

(arxiv.org)
207 points lexandstuff | 1 comments | 05 Jul 25 21:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.233s | source
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VikRubenfeld ◴[06 Jul 25 02:46 UTC] No.44477409[source]▶
Is a future where AI replaces most human labor rendered impossible by the following consideration:

-- In such a future, people will have minimal income (possibly some UBI) and therefore there will be few who can afford the products and services generated by AI

-- Therefore the AI generates greatly reduced wealth

-- Therefore there’s greatly reduced wealth to pay for the AI

-- …rendering such a future impossible

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zaptrem ◴[06 Jul 25 02:55 UTC] No.44477457[source]▶
Alternatively:

-- In such a future, people will have minimal income (possibly some UBI) and therefore there will be few who can afford the products and services generated by AI

-- Corporate profits drop (or growth slows) and there is demand from the powers that be to increase taxation in order to increase the UBI.

-- People can afford the products and services.

Unfortunately, with no jobs the products and services could become exclusively entertainment-related.

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heavyset_go ◴[06 Jul 25 06:22 UTC] No.44478291[source]▶
The most likely scenario is that everyone but those who own AI starves, and the ones who remain around are allowed to exist because powerful psychopaths still desire literal slaves to lord over, someone to have sex with and to someone to hurt/hunt/etc.

I like your optimism, though.

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sveme ◴[06 Jul 25 07:26 UTC] No.44478595[source]▶
When people starve and have no means to revolt against their massively overpowered AI/robot overlords, then I'd expect people to go back to sustenance farming (after a massive reduction in population numbers).

A while later, the world is living in a dichotomy of people living off the land and some high tech spots of fully autonomous and self-maintaining robots that do useless work for bored people. Knowing people and especially the rich, I don't believe in Culture-like utopia, unfortunately, sad as it may be.

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morningsam ◴[06 Jul 25 08:43 UTC] No.44478942[source]▶
That's assuming the AI owners would tolerate the subsistence farmers on their lands (it's obvious that in this scenario, all the land would be bought up by the AI owners eventually).
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1. sveme ◴[06 Jul 25 09:58 UTC] No.44479301[source]▶
I wouldn't believe that any sort of economy or governmental system would actually survive any of this. Ford was right in that sense, without people with well-paying jobs, no one will buy the services of robots and AIs. The only thing that would help would be the massive redistribution of wealth through inheritance taxation and taxation on ownership itself. Plus UBI, though I'm fairly sceptical of what that would do to a society without purpose.