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Comment by muldvarp

2 days ago

> Probably most of it at least, because under your supposition that the AGI will replace labor we'll get incredibly cheap products and services as a result.

No, we will get cheap _labor_, not necessarily cheap _products_.

> You weren't talking about inherent value when you wrote "Super-intelligence will make labor worthless (or very cheap) it won't make property worthless." which is what I replied to.

I was talking about value, not price.

> AIs controlled by governments would scare me indeed.

What is the difference?

> Are you joking?! How many cars do you think Altman can buy?!

Why would Elon need to sell more cars? And for what exactly? You have nothing Elon wants.

> Maybe I can't sell coding in the age of AI but I can sell my ability to understand, verify and control complex systems with code written by AIs.

Unless the super-intelligence is better than you here too. Why wouldn't it be?

> Adaptation, creativity and innovation is the name of the game.

It is the name of the game until super-intelligence comes along which will be better at all of this than you. That's exactly the scary thing about super-intelligence.

> My point was that Elon and rich people are interested in you as a customer, not for your labor.

This is the same thing. I can only be a customer if I can bring something to the table that Elon wants from me. That thing is money. I can only bring money to the table if someone that has money needs something I can provide. That thing is human labor. If super-intelligence removes the economic value of human labor, I can no longer earn money and consequently Elon will not be interested in me as a customer.

> See yourself as selling and buying products and services, not your labor, and the world will be full of opportunities.

Where exactly is the difference between me "selling a service" and me selling "labor"?

> "The rich" won't seem like a separate class from you, but regular people you can interact and profit from (while mutually benefiting).

I doesn't matter whether or not you see the rich as a seperate class. What matters is simply the following:

People who own a lot of stuff, don't sell their labor and/or buy a lot of labor will profit if labor becomes cheap. People who don't own a lot of stuff, sell their labor and don't buy a lot of labor face an existential threat if labor becomes cheap.