Little Things That Make You Smile 7: The Joy Department

[Dogg Thang]

But it's mainly that it knows enough, with all the terminology etc., so sound like an expert on the subject without actually having proper expertise.

At a certain point, this distinction becomes meaningless. For example, in art generation it gets things wrong because it doesn't actually understand what it's drawing - it is simply learning from other images. So it may not connect a wire to a plug, for example, even though at first glance the image might look pretty good. Or the number of fingers is still a source of ridicule for AI. It doesn't understand hands. But it doesn't have to. As it learns, it will get these things right without having to understand hands or plugs or what they are for. When it gets things completely right, the question of whether it understands what it's doing or not becomes pretty meaningless.

I think there might be another way to look at AI - the problem really isn't AI or what it can do. What it can do is already amazing and impressive and maybe in some ways should be great for people. The problem is capitalism because what we're really worried about is not AI (yet). It's losing our jobs.

[Cassius_Smoke]

In victorian times a hundred seamstresses were needed to make clothes, then a machine was built that only needed a handfull of untrained people to operate and made clothes at a faster rate.
Technology has always replaced people, and the people it replaces have to find other jobs. While it sucks to be on the sharp end of that stick, ultimately people find other work and possibly higher trained work (Like a machine technician, or AI developer). Man has an unquenchable thirst for advancement and it will trample on any in its path.

[wakka]

Oh great, I can become a machine technician.

[Asura]

Oh great, I can become a machine technician.

Yeah, honestly, if the alternative is that AI is doing all the fun creative stuff and humans are doing the boring grindy stuff...

Well, something has gone wrong there.

[Colin]

I’m really looking forward to The Big Swally and trying the new collab next week. Overtone do great stuff. I’m coming through straight off nightshift so can’t foresee any problems with combining strong beer and lack of sleep…

Is it Friday you’re coming mate? I can’t remember.

[Asura]

In victorian times a hundred seamstresses were needed to make clothes, then a machine was built that only needed a handfull of untrained people to operate and made clothes at a faster rate.

I think so many of our modern problems have come about because, when that happened, society tolerated an idea - that if I own a factory, and I replace 100 people with a machine, I get to fire them and keep the earnings. They don't get to just retire and keep being paid.

The idea that they would retire and keep being paid after being replaced by a machine seems ridiculous until you consider, that's only because that's not what we chose to do. The idea the factory owner keeps the revenue is just a social construct we created.

Point is if AI is going to sweep in and replace the majority of jobs within a working career (~40-60 years), which it seems like it is, we need to hurry the **** up and start issuing UBI.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think so many of our modern problems have come about because, when that happened, society tolerated an idea - that if I own a factory, and I replace 100 people with a machine, I get to fire them and keep the earnings. They don't get to just retire and keep being paid.

The idea that they would retire and keep being paid after being replaced by a machine seems ridiculous until you consider, that's only because that's not what we chose to do. The idea the factory owner keeps the revenue is just a social construct we created.

Point is if AI is going to sweep in and replace the majority of jobs within a working career (~40-60 years), which it seems like it is, we need to hurry the **** up and start issuing UBI.

Oh there is an employment **** storm coming. Because while a bespoke machine can do a single job and replace those people, an Ai can sweep aside multiple job types in one go. Not just a few hundred seamstresses in Sheffield, but hundreds of thousands of people across a host of sections around the world.

[CMcK]

Is it Friday you’re coming mate? I can’t remember.

Friday it is. I’ve actually changed shift at work so could have made the Saturday after all. Ah well. See you there.

[fishbowlhead]

Oh there is an employment **** storm coming. Because while a bespoke machine can do a single job and replace those people, an Ai can sweep aside multiple job types in one go. Not just a few hundred seamstresses in Sheffield, but hundreds of thousands of people across a host of sections around the world.

If it means I can talk to a useless ai support agent that I can change to a Scandinavian accent instead of a useless support agent thats Indian then viva La revolution.

[Dogg Thang]

I think so many of our modern problems have come about because, when that happened, society tolerated an idea - that if I own a factory, and I replace 100 people with a machine, I get to fire them and keep the earnings. They don't get to just retire and keep being paid.

This exactly. Having our jobs replaced should be a source of celebration. Each time, it should be a sigh of relief for humanity, with more people free to explore life, love, art, expression and so on. It is our system which is broken.

And the Industrial Revolution comparisons aren’t entirely wrong but I honestly be;ie e we’re seeing something far far greater here.

[Hirst]

George Jetson did a 9-hour week - 3 days, 3 hours each. He still managed to get fired every other episode, though.

[Colin]

That's our new collaboration beer now in can and keg today, all ready for our beer festival this weekend. It was a tough job having a tasting session at the brewery at 10am, sacrifices of the job.

[Lebowski]

This exactly. Having our jobs replaced should be a source of celebration. Each time, it should be a sigh of relief for humanity, with more people free to explore life, love, art, expression and so on. It is our system which is broken.

And the Industrial Revolution comparisons aren’t entirely wrong but I honestly be;ie e we’re seeing something far far greater here.

I think whats more likely to happen is that we will get a slow shift into AI and robotics taking over jobs and things getting slowly worse until the whole system breaks, it will be a gradual change like the slow roll outs of selfservice tills. Why have 20 checkout staff when you can have one person helping 20 self-service tills. Nobody's saying we should give the peoples who lost their jobs to these robots a Basic minimum income, the profit saved seems to just be going to shareholders not back into reducing the costs of goods or improving wage and conditions.

[briareos_kerensky]

That's our new collaboration beer now in can and keg today, all ready for our beer festival this weekend. It was a tough job having a tasting session at the brewery at 10am, sacrifices of the job.

Sort-of technical question: why so many breweries are going for IPAs? Lack of good hops for other types, it's the type selling the most, or is some sort of fad for the moment (well, more like years)?
Swiss microbreweries in particular (and Italian too, to a lesser extent though) are fixated on the type...I don't mind an IPA once in a while, but they are all starting to taste the same, and I pine for a good stout nowadays.

[Colin]

All of the above really Luca. It’s the style that sells the most and is the most popular year round, at least for my business. Beer is very seasonal though. In winter imperial stouts will be the biggest seller, then in summer it’ll be sours and fruit beers and so on. IPA’s are just constant.