Long before the current wave of #AIHype, we were being groomed for automation panics with misleading stories. Remember this one? "'Truck driver' is the most common job in America. Self-driving trucks are just around the corner. How can we prevent America's army of truckers from turning into a howling mob when the robots steal their jobs?"
https://futurism.com/millions-of-jobs-are-at-risk-but-their-loss-could-be-for-the-greater-good
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@pluralistic I would argue that they have *already* turned AI into a Paperclip Maximizer.
Power-hungry and water-thirsty AI data centres are being built in a world that's in the middle of a climate crisis. Google is planning one in Uruguay, where potable water has been so scarce that salt water is being mixed in the tap water. And all that so we can generate corporate word salad and phishing scams at the touch of a button.
How is that *not* Paperclip Maximization?
@datarama @pluralistic I would go further than that, and say that GDP as an economic measurement is the paperclip maximizer. If our federal government targets producing 2% more paperclip equivalents per year, what the computer does is irrelevant to whether paperclips get maximized.
It's completely idiotic and doesn't interrogate the usefulness or logic of anything its metric measures.
@lispi314 @datarama @pluralistic it's worse than that - it's actively harmful. If you're healthy, that's not good for GDP. If you have a extended network of family & friends and your kids all hang together and you don't pay a nanny or childcare or babysitter because the kids are together with someone who loves them? Bad for GDP. If you own a small business and work at it? Bad for GDP compared to having someone else own it and be in charge, paying you wages to do the same job. Commute by walking or biking? Bad for GDP. Stuck in traffic for hours a day burning gas, harming the already declining value of an expensive and fragile possession, and giving everyone around you asthma and heart attacks? Great for GDP.
Imagine caring for someone who is sick and no money is exchanged. This activity is measured as having no value by GDP.
Imagine raising a child without being paid for it. This activity is measured as having no economic value by GDP.
Imagine charging for the care of people who can't care for themselves. Imagine minimizing your costs to the point where the number of people who keep up with the hygiene of those that can't for themselves is so few that on average the aides hired have only 20 minutes a day to take care of each person's needs including washing, dressing, cleaning teeth, cleaning asses, etc. This is valued highly when measured by GDP.
