"We will not define ourselves by our work anymore - the term 'Protestant work ethic' that emerged with the industrial revolution, will disappear with the revolution of artificial intelligence and robotics", according to Shawn Walsh, docutrain in the field of software development
"We will not define ourselves by our work anymore. The term 'Protestant Work Ethic' that emerged with the Industrial Revolution along with the 'spirit of capitalism' will disappear with the revolution of artificial intelligence and robotics. There will be no need to define ourselves according to our profession", said Shawn Walsh, doctoral candidate in the philosophy of technology, in response to the question "people and computers" how can we live a meaningful life in a world without work?
Walsh is a postdoc at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, in his 50s, who has worked for more than 20 years in software development, but did his undergraduate degree in philosophy. The late doctorate allows him to combine the two. Among other things, he is engaged in his research in the ethics of robots. He also wrote many articles about what he calls Robotopia - a utopian future where the machines do all the work.
to be masters
According to him, "What we can do is return to the values of the past. Aristotle, for example, did not define himself in terms of his profession. on the contrary. He argues that it is to achieve eudaimonia (flourishing) that we need leisure and knowledge to engage in philosophy and politics. This wisdom that Aristotle cultivated allowed people to be masters. Masters are not defined by their work but by their knowledge, wisdom and virtue. Of course, in the modern world, the definition is true for both men and women."
"People will be able to find meaning in what they do on vacation," Walsh said. "Some will be able to find meaning in religion. They may become Buddhist monks or Hindu sannyasins who renounce the world and seek enlightenment, so do Christian monks, and ultra-Orthodox Jews who teach their faith full-time. Others will be able to find meaning and achievement in art, writing poetry, sculpture, handicrafts. People will still be able to find meaning in love and family. There will be financial abundance and there will be no excuse to 'be too busy at work' to maintain contact between spouses."
As an example, Walsh cited Karl Marx, who in his book "The German ideologyHe said that "in the communist society, everyone will have an environment of activity, but everyone will also be able to fulfill the mitzvah in any field they want. Society regulates the general production and thus will enable every man to do one thing today, another thing tomorrow, hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, lead cows to pasture in the evening, criticize after dinner, as I have a brain, without ever becoming a hunter, a fisherman, or A cattle herder".
According to Marx, he said, “The German ideology will replace the communist society with a robotic society and you have a picture of the future. We will all live like masters - except that instead of slaves we will have robots. By the way, the meaning of the word robots in Czech (Karel Chapek's book, 'Rossum's Universal Robots') means 'serf' who works hard.
How can we avoid a situation where, instead of everyone benefiting, a small group of corporations will take over, for example, the production of food and sell it to us at a high price, and there will be no work that can be earned to buy the food? Some argue that this is what technology companies do today?
"Governments have a background in dealing with monopolies for decades. This will continue. The emerging hi-tech companies cross borders and are therefore monopolies that are harder to capture. For example, Google has a kind of monopoly on the search through which it is possible to advertise - but they are not an advertising monopoly. Facebook (Facebook) is a kind of monopoly on a certain niche in social media (online personal relationships separate from professional difficulties) that feeds its advertising business, but neither Google nor Facebook are strict monopolies."
Walsh explains that "to finance the way of life in a time when robots will do all the work, a capital tax of some kind or a tax on robots will be needed. Bill Gates and Jeremy Corbyn (Labor leader in Great Britain) have shown that this is possible."
"Markets cannot work if most people do not have the income to buy goods and services. A mechanism must be created for the distribution of capital. This is already happening in many welfare states, but will increase even more with the idea of a basic income."
"The idea of a basic income was proposed by Thomas Paine in a pamphlet called "Agrarian Justice". Many countries are conducting experiments to see how this basic income will change human behavior and their satisfaction with life."
Will we have to wait for robotics until all professions are replaced by artificial intelligence?
"I don't think so. In my opinion it will be a gradual but quick process. As artificial intelligence improves, there will be disruptions and economic changes but also better technology. However, the main challenge that needs to be done in order to reach robotopia and avoid robot dystopia is not technological."
"Politicians should think about it already today and they are not even close to making the issue a top priority. Will the queues of the unemployed get longer? This may or may not happen. The pressure on politicians to implement universal income will increase."
"Other policy measures that should be implemented besides universal income may be to protect human workers by preventing robots from doing certain jobs."
What are the areas that need to be improved to bring us so far in the future?
"Technology will develop. Markets and research will drive innovation. The main thing that the average citizen can do is to stand guard and start thinking about universal basic income or the way to get rid of the problem of mass unemployment that will be created as a result of technology."
See more on the subject on the science website:
- "In not many years none of us will have a job, we will have to prepare for that"
- "The robots not only take professions but allow easier entry into new technological professions"
- No government in the developed countries is prepared for the robot revolution that will eliminate jobs throughout the organizational hierarchy
- "The robots may replace any possible service provider - and this is a legal and legal concern"
- The three waves of artificial intelligence that will shape the future
24 תגובות
The solution to the problem will be global education
As the robots take more jobs and the unemployment level rises, it will be possible to harness all the unemployed to global educational courses and training. It is known that the world has become more accessible, closer, smaller, and from a social point of view, we see a reverse process where the individual wants more and more to close himself off, isolated as much as possible, glued to the screen. Our abilities to live in a stable society that supports all its parts allows for a feeling of freedom and security, still very limited to say the least.
Let's take the example of the human body, each and every cell in the body is mobilized to perform its role for the general body, a cell that does not work for the general body is a cancer cell, this is known. This is how we as a human society must behave as well and for this we must take care of an adequate global social education for everyone, not only for children but for all of them. It is incumbent upon us to build this education system and take examples from places that implement such processes in a small way.
I admit that global education is a topic that needs to be researched and developed a lot more, but unfortunately I don't see any other solution. Take a group of 10 people and lock them in a room for a long time, very quickly there will be camps and fights and control and respect and the inability to be one body and that's because we don't have that in our educational gardens, what's more the media encourages fights and provocations.
I will not elaborate here on the subject of the media, which is controlled by capitalists and particularly narrow interests. Maybe we need to expand but, let's go back to the example, if we teach those 10 people to act as one body we will realize in a small way the future where all humanity is as one body and where there is disharmony then actions are required to balance the health of the body. Just like the human body that knows how to do this (or is helped by a doctor)
Of course, many questions remain open, but the clear thing is that the solution is in education.
In the summer of 2009, a book by the scientist Jacob Guggenheim called 'Light Maker' was published, in which the author explains the essence of light according to the concepts of modern physics and according to Kabbalah theory. In one of the sentences guiding the essay, the author states that light is the most spiritual object in the physical world, and in a particularly picturesque expression he says: "In front of the wave-particle light created by the play of God, Einstein and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai are companions in studying the wisdom of the Creator that is inherent in nature."
Below is a quote from the opening of the book:
The Prophecy of the Zohar: The prophecy of the book of the Zohar is known that in the year six hundred to the sixth millennium of the creation of the world (5,600 - 1840) the gates of wisdom above and the springs of wisdom below will be opened and the world will be corrected so that it can enter the seventh millennium. Truly, from this date began an accelerated development in the discoveries of science (the springs of the abyss) and wonderful discoveries in the depths of the Torah (the chimneys of the sky). The Zohar prophecy is based on what is said in the Torah about the flood that swept the world in 1656 B.C.: "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, all the springs of the great abyss arose and the chimneys of the heavens were opened."
In science, from 1842 - JOULE's law of conservation of energy, the DOPPLER effect, the radio
1857 – PASTEUR, 1859 SPECTROSCOPY
1869 - Mendeleev's periodic table
1873 - MAXWELL's formulas, etc. - until 1905: Einstein's theory of relativity which constituted the conceptual revolution concerning the most fundamental concepts and unifying them: matter and energy, time and space.
On the other hand, there were developments within the Torah: Kabbalah and Hasidism which changed the face of Judaism with a profound and revolutionary concept. As early as 1799, Rabbi Shanor Zalman writes that the world is a time and a place that came into being together (a century before the theory of relativity). Later, the 'Tzemach Tzedek' writes that time is not continuous except once in a pulse of 'desire and again', a pulse of reality (today they say that time is quantum).
As Maxwell united light and electromagnetic waves and Einstein united time and space, our era is characterized by a tendency towards unification towards the seventh millennium:
Physical unification of the earth in transportation and economic relations and in relations between countries up to ecological issues - the concept of the geosphere - the geographical union.
Biological unification in medical matters: an international fight against epidemics and diseases and all-human research programs such as the decoding of the human genome - the DNA - the unification of the biosphere.
An ideological union - the NOONSPHERE, which is manifested in the internet revolution that allows the exchange of information, opinions and studies.
At the same time, a deeper union takes place - a spiritual union that attracts less attention - a union that begins with the union of the concepts:
Between particle and wave, matter and energy, time and space - Einstein. Among the fundamental forces of physics: the electromagnetic force, the weak and strong interaction in the atom and the nuclear force - forces that unite at high energies at the beginning of the big bang at time zero. GUT theory: GRAND UNIFICATION THEORY and string theory in multidimensional spaces.
And likewise more examples from the field of medicine and mental sciences.
The author concludes: It is time to build a spiritual science based on the integration of all available information, break through the barriers and search for the truth with all the tools at our disposal: A-M-T connects everything (all the letters from A to Z with the M in the middle) .
If the robots are smart enough to do all the work, they will also be smart enough to decide that they don't need humans and that the humans are eliminating the robots' energy and various finite resources on Earth that can belong exclusively to the robots, without sharing the resources with the humans, who are competitors Inferior and weak from robots. The robots will take life from most of humanity, and from a small part of humanity they will only take freedom, and spare their lives, and will use the few millions of individual humans they will keep alive for their research and entertainment needs, the robots. The humans will not have the power to resist, because of their inferiority in all kinds of respects compared to the robots.
marginal
Can you please translate your comment into a language that even males can understand?
Interestingly, when entertained on the bracelet that works for us, the writers and commenters are wise and knowledgeable males
Within the population, there are varieties that are transparent to the author of the article and the commenters who are unable and unfortunately do not want to expand knowledge and do not even understand why it is good, apathetic to knowledge.
It is enough to visit schools to see this.
Such people do not know how to employ themselves.
Socially what will happen to them and where does it lead the inhabitants of the earth
Furthermore, since there is no need to do anything, the level of knowledge and motivation will decrease to absolute zero except for those virtuous individuals who will set the wheel in motion and use it to their advantage (yes, even today).
The level of crime, drugs, exploitation of the helpless and weak, genetics does not change.
Where is all this?
rival
Technology is not the solution to everything. I think there are at least three other factors here.
The first is resources - already today there is a shortage of lithium that is used for electric batteries and I am sure that there are more such resources.
The second factor is humans. They will need governance systems, education, health and security. Someone will have to teach the robot to sew the latest fashion, or the new rules.
The third is, of course, economics. People will want to buy things and there won't be an infinite amount of what people want. We know communism can't work, and I hope no sane person thinks otherwise 🙂
The solution I implement is the use of Google's artificial intelligence development tools, on a local server. It takes hours instead of minutes, but it does. On this side, I enjoy the free tool distributed by Google, pure and complete pleasure. And there is some hypocrisy in my claim. I checked other platforms. They are more suitable for the general population, but do not come close to the Google tool.
They also do beautiful things in themselves such as developing artificial intelligence, and apparently distributing open source for developing artificial intelligence and developing web sites, and developing blueprints and office, and in this way they overtake, for example, Microsoft and Intel.
For example, I heard that Jeff Bezos from Amazon does not like to donate, even though he has a Giga company. But Amazon is racing in the field of cloud computing. But not in isolation from the environment where the context seems utopian, the pure purpose of this philanthropy is profit, and along the way the intellectual property rights are trampled perhaps only apparently (it is impossible to prove, and in fact by using the environment you agree) intellectual property rights - there is no possibility to check the claim.
On the other hand, the development of artificial intelligence, the tools that Google gives for free - nothing competes with them, from the products that cost 2 million NIS for an environmental license. Such products exist.
2 things happen like this. Respectable environments crash. No competitor left. And the second point
There is no choice but to use the Google tool. Another advantage: if you buy a server for NIS 50,000, it becomes obsolete quickly. However
Purchase running hours on Google or Amazon - reasonable price. And the technology is always modern. And the downside: open code can be copied in the runtime environment. In my opinion, maintaining the property is worth purchasing a server, but not everyone has the money for a server and in an open source world they take the risk and run with it. This economy allows the few who are geniuses to get rich. For example, Ian Judfellow, the father of the invention of adversary networks at Google (2 networks that compete with each other in a zero-sum game train each other and there is no need to produce training examples so it is cheap) a young man who is a professor, obviously getting rich. There aren't many Ian Juddfels.
Utopia will not come true in my opinion. The giant companies give us "free services" at a very high price. For example, a lecture on the giant computing of Google or Facebook or Amazon - in the open source language Python. They can copy developed code. If they can I think they do. means they copy your intellectual property to them. Go prove it.
Does anyone ask themselves how a corporation that gives away a lot for free is worth 400 billion dollars and causes companies in all fields to collapse?
Intel, HP, Ericsson, and in fields seemingly unrelated to electronics.
Artificial intelligence is channeled for the benefit of the oligarchs and not for the common good now.
rival,
Not with cynicism but with fear. If we ever reach some kind of utopia it will be fraught with many struggles. The capitalists who rule the world today do not want to see you drive the same car they drive and live next to them. I reckon it will be a lot worse before it gets better, if we ever get there
dialect,
I don't think the scenario you presented will come true. First of all, entrepreneurs will have an urge to produce such robots because they will sell them to the state and make money on them, the owners of the factories will also receive a salary from the state (in addition to the basic financial grant that every citizen will receive).
The social order will not be undermined, people who do not have to work hard all their lives will probably be calmer and more peaceful, meaning less crime. There will also be no reason to steal because all the products will be available in abundance and cheaply.
Those who do insist on entering the circle of crime will probably encounter robot policemen who will be much more efficient and tougher than today's human policemen, it will not be profitable for them 🙂
Does anyone remember the movie "Robocop"?
You can see and remember on YouTube.
During the interim period you spoke of, it will be possible to implement various solutions, such as lowering the retirement age to a much earlier age, or encouraging some people to go to work by paying a high salary that will allow them to live in a better standard of living than the rest of the citizens.
Shmulik,
You say a wonderful new world sarcastically but I think that's really what it will be.
When a technologically advanced country knows how to produce everything it needs cheaply and efficiently using robots, there will be no reason not to share the profits with the citizens, and in the products that these robots will produce. The government will have no reason to force people to move at the cost of economic loss to the state, it will be more profitable for the government to pay them money for resting at home.
Instead of toiling like today from morning to night to support ourselves and produce products for our country, we can finally free up our time for things that really interest us.
rival,
True and right, but there is a qualitative change in the autonomous automation.
What we see is more and more professions being conquered by automation, but unlike what was the case in past revolutions, almost no alternative professions are created following the new developments. There is no need for so many scientists + engineers + programmers to produce an automatic driver relative to the amount of people who are involved in driving and transportation today. They will find themselves without a profession and without the ability to change professions and this will happen in many other professions soon. There are quite a few articles on the subject
By the way, the decline in employment also comes because of sites like Amazon that cause shopping malls to dry up
wonderful new world
Shmulik,
Obviously, this process does not happen overnight and is gradual, but if you notice this process has actually already begun. Since the industrial revolution began, robots have taken the place of many workers on the production lines, as well as in agriculture, tractors, combines and sophisticated mechanical tools have taken the place of thousands of manual workers in the field, and this will only increase.
Social disparities would increase, and the poor would have no way to improve their economic situation through work
Work was always, but does not enter, the blame for their situation will fall on the workers
rival,
As the manager of a "generic" factory, I would certainly prefer to work with the robots you described rather than with humans (I assume that the relationship will be much better in favor of the robots). The problem is during the excitation (not all have switched to complete automation, there are some that work and some that don't). This problematic phase may last for many years. At this time only the wealthy will benefit and the rest of humanity will be completely dependent on the government which itself will be financed by those wealthy. This is a terrible distribution of wealth, which will cause unrest among the population. Such agitation will eventually lead to what agitations always lead to: fire and plenty.
I heard that there is an interesting idea and that is the taxation of the work of the robots and thus the state will be able to finance the layoffs of people due to the automation.
Shmulik,
Ask yourself such a question, you are the manager of a factory and you have two options before you, either purchase 10 robots that can do the work of 200 human workers on the production line, much faster, more efficiently and cheaper than them, and within a year they cover the cost of their purchase. Or, employ 200 human workers that you will have to pay them a salary for all the years of their employment, take care of their pension, health, insurance...
What would you prefer?
Shmulik,
Thanks for the link, I'll look into it later.
When the robots know how to produce everything, cars, planes, grow food and even protect the country, then money will have no meaning, everything will be available.
And in the first step, the government will probably distribute basic allowances that will be enough for the citizens for all their needs.
rival,
Who will finance people's basic salary?
There is an interesting experiment in Finland
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4847019,00.html
opponent,
You present a utopian situation, how the money will be distributed, why would entrepreneurs have the urge to produce robots, or set up a factory with manufacturing robots if they don't make a profit, how will they make a profit if people have no way to buy.
There is another aspect here, more than the sociological side, people go to work and work during most of the day, they are obliged to do so in order to earn a decent living, so they are in a certain framework for most of the day, if people stop working and have free time there is no limit to the move that can undermine the order Society as we know it, can cause a very steep increase in crime, extremism and other serious phenomena.
It seems to me that some professions will remain. (Development/Management) and maybe you will have to do "service to the general" for a few years and then you will be free to receive a basic income or something like that.
Terrible is the pioneer politics. Which is not aware of paying, but only to the cynical part within it. Inevitable deterioration. When there is no responsibility for a safety net suitable for the periodic changes
In an era where intelligent robots could perform any job that a human does and in a much cheaper, faster and more efficient way, there would be no justification (financial or otherwise) to continue employing humans in the same professions.
We will finally be able to devote our time to the things that really interest us, each in his own field, and we will no longer be bound to the subject of work and livelihood as we are today.
The robots will cheaply and abundantly produce all the products the country needs.