[Speaking of jobs, if anyone knows of any work going from Sydney or remotely- let me know. Also, if you’ve been thinking about subscribing as thanks for my content, I’d be very grateful. Seeking work post PhD is an ordeal!] “However, even though jobs where humans have absolute advantage may be narrowing, there is little reason to expect an end to human work. The reason stems from a classic idea in economics: comparative advantage.
As for getting a job post-Ph.D, I never did get one. At least not in my field.
But that's okay. What is missed in this whole thing is a misconception of work as who we are and who we are is what we do. But we can do many things, we can drive a car, build a house, or obtain Ph.D.'s So if a robot does what we do, then we need to take your cold shower from the other do. It doesn't matter whether a robot can do everything if we can continue to do other things and be more than what we do.
If we confuse leisure as separate from work and identity with work, then humans are inefficient at being who they are.
Robots can always out perform what we do, but they can't replace who we are. We are not our jobs and we are not our leisure and they are not distinctive from each other.
We are singers, we are storytellers, we conceive thoughts beyond the ones and twos thast robots can only conceive after we think them. They can write stories only after we write them, they can make music only after we sing them our songs. They can calculate much faster than we can but they can't calculate anything. They are no more brilliant than a pulley, they cannot be more than a tool even if they can replicate themselves, they are a rust bucket if we don't use the tool.
If the human realizes he is not what he does, and if he is not numbed into becoming a robot, he is more efficient than a robot . If he becomes a robot and lets a computer choose what video he will watch next. If he becomes a robot and always watches the same next channel, then the robot needn't replace him, he has already replaced.
We are more than a robot because we are not what we do. The robot can't sit on the beach and enjoy the warmth of the sun, the robot doesn't know a bird poopped on him when he's shading himself under a tree.
We are all of that..
If you measure efficiency on what a robot can do, then they beat humans at every task.
If you measure efficiency by who we are and the robot as only a tool that exists because of who we are, then we win hands down and are more than a robot could hope to be... oops he can't hope to earn a ph.d, can he. We may build him to contain more knowledge than a ph.d., but he can't hope to be one.
The argument you are suggesting here is that as humans we are whatever economic value we have. While humans may have frequently as such, and many economists, even Marx may have viewed us in that way, humans are much more, a bird is much more, a tree is much more than the economic value of what he can produce, or do.
But a human can only do that when he recognizes his greatest value is not what he does, but what he is, and what he is the value he brings to another when he sings, when he shares a meal, and when he wipes the bird poop off his friend's head.
Alas that this point needs to be made, and to economists sometimes no less. But thank you for making it.
As for getting a job post-Ph.D, I never did get one. At least not in my field.
But that's okay. What is missed in this whole thing is a misconception of work as who we are and who we are is what we do. But we can do many things, we can drive a car, build a house, or obtain Ph.D.'s So if a robot does what we do, then we need to take your cold shower from the other do. It doesn't matter whether a robot can do everything if we can continue to do other things and be more than what we do.
If we confuse leisure as separate from work and identity with work, then humans are inefficient at being who they are.
Robots can always out perform what we do, but they can't replace who we are. We are not our jobs and we are not our leisure and they are not distinctive from each other.
We are singers, we are storytellers, we conceive thoughts beyond the ones and twos thast robots can only conceive after we think them. They can write stories only after we write them, they can make music only after we sing them our songs. They can calculate much faster than we can but they can't calculate anything. They are no more brilliant than a pulley, they cannot be more than a tool even if they can replicate themselves, they are a rust bucket if we don't use the tool.
If the human realizes he is not what he does, and if he is not numbed into becoming a robot, he is more efficient than a robot . If he becomes a robot and lets a computer choose what video he will watch next. If he becomes a robot and always watches the same next channel, then the robot needn't replace him, he has already replaced.
We are more than a robot because we are not what we do. The robot can't sit on the beach and enjoy the warmth of the sun, the robot doesn't know a bird poopped on him when he's shading himself under a tree.
We are all of that..
If you measure efficiency on what a robot can do, then they beat humans at every task.
If you measure efficiency by who we are and the robot as only a tool that exists because of who we are, then we win hands down and are more than a robot could hope to be... oops he can't hope to earn a ph.d, can he. We may build him to contain more knowledge than a ph.d., but he can't hope to be one.
The argument you are suggesting here is that as humans we are whatever economic value we have. While humans may have frequently as such, and many economists, even Marx may have viewed us in that way, humans are much more, a bird is much more, a tree is much more than the economic value of what he can produce, or do.
But a human can only do that when he recognizes his greatest value is not what he does, but what he is, and what he is the value he brings to another when he sings, when he shares a meal, and when he wipes the bird poop off his friend's head.
Most humans are dying because most of us can not afford fod/houses.
Once robots (or other autonomous tools) mass-produce produce all goods to us,
all of us can retire and have food/houses.
How to produce autonomous tools: https://swudususuwu.substack.com/p/program-general-purpose-robots-autonomous