Violence Against Tech Firms May Only Be Beginning

realcleartechnology.com ^ | January 24, 2014 | Greg Scoblete

[Second Amendment First]

Exactly when (or even if) the Singularity will occur is a matter of debate. Our efforts to build intelligent machines may hit a brick wall. But if progress towards intelligent machines continues unabated, you can be sure the debate regarding a "post-human" future that is currently a peripheral concern (at best) will take on increasing urgency. In such an environment, how will society react? Will people accept the fact that their destiny -- the destiny of their species -- may cease to be in their hands? Will they wish to pursue research that could destroy human life as we know it?

[Black Agnes]

Of course they will. The elites despise the rest of us. They’re not funding and developing this technology to make life easier for US, it’s to allow them to exist WITHOUT us.

The proclamations of sustainable life on the planet being fewer than 100m humans takes into account that most of the work won’t be done by humans. And once the elites decide they no longer need us...the fun begins.

[Alex Murphy]

The first wave may prove to be nothing more than an unfortunate product of social resentment. The second wave could be catastrophic. Many technological revolutions inspire fear and often violence when they displace workers -- the Luddite riots in Britain in the 1800s being the most famous example. We are living through one such revolution today.

The writer assumes it's about technological displacement, when it IMO is really about envy. "I can't have what you have, so I want to burn yours to the ground."

[Second Amendment First]

And that will end when the machines decide they no longer need the elites.

[Common Sense 101]

Hmmmmmmm... the long-time financial supporters and outright enablers of these dangerously psychotic libtard fascists have now become the targets. Looks like a reap-sow situation. Just FYI... whining about it won’t help.

[Black Agnes]

Possibly.

I’m reminded of the opening chapters of the Dune series that discusses such a possibility, the ensuing hostilities and the end result being the elimination of ALL digital technology.

[null and void]

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[Second Amendment First]

Well it is Berkeley.

[MHGinTN]

First they came for Frankenstein’s experiment ...

[Black Agnes]

Not quite.

It’s only a matter of time before EVERY job is mechanized. Even ‘untouchable’ white collar jobs will be outsourced to automation with advances in AI.

How will you feed your family then?

There won’t be anywhere to run. No skills that can be developed that won’t ultimately be done more cheaply and efficiently by machine.

[OneWingedShark]

The writer assumes it's about technological displacement, when it IMO is really about envy. "I can't have what you have, so I want to burn yours to the ground."

Maybe; however it could be about something else entirely — the second sentence of the second paragraph says:

They're also in the cross-hairs for their role in assisting NSA surveillance.

So it could be that they're taking a stand against tyranny and the media-spin is to make them the bad-guys by painting them as envious or "backwards and afraid of technology."

[null and void]

...and I said nothing for I have all my original parts...

[Alex Murphy]

It’s only a matter of time before EVERY job is mechanized. Even ‘untouchable’ white collar jobs will be outsourced to automation with advances in AI. How will you feed your family then? There won’t be anywhere to run. No skills that can be developed that won’t ultimately be done more cheaply and efficiently by machine.

Sounds hopeless. What do you propose?

[HereInTheHeartland]

Better learn how to build and control the machines then!! Adapt or die has been true for centuries.

[Second Amendment First]

... a war between "Cosmists" and "Terrans" -- the former devoted to advancing the Singularity and the latter dedicated to stopping it at all costs.

Although I fear the Cosmists are going to win when the military replaces soldiers with robots.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Sounds hopeless. What do you propose?

Stick close to John Connor.

[tanknetter]

The foundation may be envy and “can’t have what you have”, but the real catalyst will be people driven by hopelessness/desperation and “no path to have what you have.”

It’s like that old Ferengi comment about Humans becoming more violent and bloodthirsty than Klingons when deprived of not only their creature comforts but also exposed to real adversity on a personal level.

[Black Agnes]

Maybe the hostilities aren’t about envy, but simply survival.

Most of the FSA in this country was either put out of a ‘family supporting’ job by free trade or automation beginning ~40-45 years ago. Their numbers will only grow. The welfare state was the narcotic that allowed us to overlook the fact that we were being ‘outsourced’ and ‘replaced’ en masse. Think it’s a coincidence that the welfare state became a fait accompli around the same time we began sending our industries overseas? The welfare state was put in place to keep us from noticing. It’s H1B visa holders now. Within 20 years it will be most white collar jobs replaced with AI.

How many of these can you support, realistically, with your taxes? What kind of social chaos are you willing to tolerate in the name of progress. Their children have run feral for 2 and 3 generations. How long before it’s your children running feral? With all the progress in automation on just car assembly lines, I haven’t seen cars become more affordable to the average family in the US.

The welfare state is unsustainable in the long term. When it crashes, do you think it will be possible for all the participants to get jobs? What sort of jobs will they get? The elites will still have the tech and the money and the resources.

Given their stance on overpopulation, what do you think the over/under is that they’ll just let us starve in the streets?

Why do you think they’re implementing a rabid surveillance system right now? How likely do you think rebellion will succeed under that sort of scenario? ‘0’? Less? Do you really think it’s all about keeping US safe?

This isn’t about weaving looms. That was simply a process. And new skills were out there to be learned. This is about the replacement of nearly the entire human species.

The same elites that are pushing all this tech are also the same ones rabidly preaching population control.

Specifically YOUR population control.

[discostu]

I don’t know, the people near Connor tend to get killed in droves.

[tanknetter]

If John Connor isn’t nearby, Commander Adama or Neo will work just as well ...