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It's funny, I agree with you and that is specifically what does not give me hope.
My biggest fear is that we won't get terminators, or that we'll get UBI and no one will have to work anymore.
In either case, Sisyphus will no longer have a boulder to push and that is a nightmare.
I've been out of work for 2-years. It's no fucking picnic. No boulder, no motivation for me. Only thing that got me going lately was my wife's request for a fish tank. Digging out and cleaning the old gear, plus a pretty large living space reorg kept me going to a couple of days. More to come! I need to get that smart power switch working... brb.
Yeah see, this is the problem.
The post scarcity "pursue your passions" model doesn't work unless you're an actual hedonistic degenerate. For the rest of us this is an actual nightmare. I am really not looking forward to the day when I don't need to work.
Ok first off "post scarcity" is never going to happen, we are the resource their system extracts from and it will never give anything back. But if it did somehow, if we built a loving god? That'd be dope as hell. If you genuinely don't have interests beyond your needs to pursue right now I hope you find some. There's nothing hedonistic or degenerate (nazi buzzword btw) about passion and engagement. What gives your life meaning beyond meeting those needs as-is?
I don't like having things. I prefer to not have them but want them but for there to be no actual way to ever get them. If it was possible to have the things that I want, then there would be no more fun in wanting them. It's a hedonistic treadmill.
It's like debugging code. The fun part is the debugging. The worst part is when you actually fix the bug. Pushing the boulder is what makes life enjoyable.
EDIT: Probably worth explaining why this relates to LLMs. LLM's, and a post scarcity world, promises all bug-fixing and no debugging. It's like playing a videogame with a difficulty slider; you could play with the difficulty on high but you always know that you could reduce it if you needed to. Takes the fun out of the game.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Would you say most of your material needs are met now? I'm somewhat behind on mine, and freedom from the constant struggle of not quite meeting them sounds (and is) too good to be true. I'm not against offloading that burden to a machine in principle or out of an attachment to want itself, I'm against it because that machine has been well-proven not to be acting in our best interests or capable of shouldering that burden even if its operators would ever allow it
My material needs are certainly met. My family will likely never buy a home but I've never wanted to so that's no loss for me. We have food, water, shelter and access to education for our children (for all the good that will do them).
I have had times in my life where my material needs were very far from being met. Either as a result of lack of funds or as a result of being located somewhere hostile to those needs. Though the fear of a post scarcity economy has been one I've had since I was a child (ironically the most materially unstable portion of my life) so this has been a consistent character trait, whether or not I could articulate it.
I didn't mean it as a callout or gotcha, just seemed relevant to the potential appeal of having them met by a machine. I certainly wouldn't feel lost or directionless in that scenario, there's so much I want to do but can't now. Liberation from the chop wood/carry water processes that occupy more time than I've got would unlock so much potential
I notice when the topic of a post-scarcity/post-work environment comes up the reactions tend to be roughly sortable into 2 camps. People with my perspective and people who would be excited about this. It's interesting that you mention liberation from chop wood/carry water because that actually sounds rather lovely, and that's coming from someone that did manual/industrial labor for the first half of their working life.
I wonder what the psychology of that is? Why some people would find the absence of toil freeing and others would find it dreadful.
You're more than welcome to come pitch in. I feel like it has a lot to do with how someone's currently handling their burdens. If you're thriving now, fundamental change is a threat. If you're struggling, there's room to see it as salvation. I think it sounds lovely to be warm and have enough to eat, and am quite confident I could find another goal should those suddenly be achieved. Maybe it's just the grass being greener as usual :p
Most likely haha, probably also true for myself. Ironically I got out of doing industrial work to get into tech and, now, with AI eating a lot of my responsibilities I'm looking at getting back into the field.
Change has a way of revealing things about ourselves and others.