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OmManiPadmeHuumm t1_irj568g wrote

Can you explain further why Singularity and AGI means people will have no real leverage in protests?

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Lawjarp2 OP t1_irj9kbw wrote

One of the most well known tactic in protests is civil disobedience. It was used by MLK and Gandhi. Most 'protests' that we see now however are actually sanctioned and permitted by the government. Civil disobedience is when you are truly protesting against the government/regime. If essential workers stop working for a short while, farmers don't grow food for a season, power employees don't fix broken cables there will be no government. This is true leverage. This leverage comes from this intrinsic economic value these people hold.

With all work being done by robots, people no longer have economic leverage. If military and law enforcement is also robotic then there is no real power on the ground with protestors whatsoever. There is no leverage because the other side has infinite time to think. You can protest all you want but if they don't agree they can indefinitely bear your protests.

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natepriv22 t1_irjomfa wrote

Then there is a simple solution that you may not have considered. The opposite of production is consumption. People have economic leverage in both production and consumption.

Is the government threatening the population and produces everything via robots? Ok then the population stops consuming and buying. This would effectively destroy an economy just like no production would. One can't exist without the other, and you can use one to leverage against the other.

For further evidence, look at global and gov problems caused by surpluses and the economic damage they do.

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Lawjarp2 OP t1_irjpuy7 wrote

Consumption is not a power but a liability. If you say you won't consume resources as a protest no one will care.

The whole production and consumption is to sustain a middle class that can produce better workforce to do more stuff. Without need for a middle class there is no need for a consumption based economy. As long as enough resources are being produced to keep the military going everything else can be ignored. It's a common dystopian theory. Few rich with mostly urban slum dwellers surviving off of UBI.

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natepriv22 t1_irjqhqj wrote

That's not true. An economy works off of supply and demand. One without the other doesn't work.

If no one demands products or services, then supply becomes essentially useless.

There's plenty of examples where consumers organize demand protests, and companies or governments are forced to change their practices.

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Lawjarp2 OP t1_irjr5rn wrote

The consumers here matter. Because they are the producers of something else. If everything was just based on demand then no one would have less than what they need. There would be no poor.

The government could still demand more weapons, better robots, more missiles etc. All of this could be met without wasting resources servicing demands of people who are irrelevant.

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natepriv22 t1_irjrm7h wrote

The government doesn't raise money out of thin air. Every single dollar or equivalent currency has to be at some point raised through taxation.

So the government demand is actually population demand but under another name.

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Lawjarp2 OP t1_irjsah4 wrote

It can print money from thin air. Money doesn't even matter at that point. Consumption based economy as a whole isn't meaningful anymore.

Can't you really see someone mining and building stuff when they literally own everything and have infinite labour.

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mootcat t1_irlhqgw wrote

They actually literally do.

Of existent money 95%+ is debt that has been leveraged to create more money. When you go to the bank to take out a loan the bank magics into existence the 100 thousand you need. They then use your contact as an asset and borrow against it, usually at a 10 times its value.

When the Federal Reserve printed 80% of currency in circulation in two years since 2019 that wasn't tied to anything real or tangible, hence the massive inflation we are dealing with now.

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natepriv22 t1_irn70ye wrote

So you agree with me. I'm not saying the money is directly coming from tax, but eventually it has to come through tax. We have reached such a breaking point.

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natepriv22 t1_irn733x wrote

What do you think inflation actually is?

It's really just another form of taxation that eventually ends up in the govs hands.

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mootcat t1_irnfspj wrote

Indeed! And it's intentionally maintained and raised/lowered as a mechanism of control over the populace.

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QuietOil9491 t1_irjxbi3 wrote

Consumption == Eating Food, Drinking Water, Using Medicine, Having Clothes, Having Shelter, Heating, Cooling == NECESSARY FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL… 🤦🏻‍♂️

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TheSingulatarian t1_irmdlpg wrote

Proles gotta have their lattes.

Feed most people enough cheeseburgers, porn and Netflix and they will be perfectly happy. I don't have much hope for the future.

The PR people and the con men have warped the definition of capitalism, socialism and Christianity to such a degree that most people don't even know what they actually mean.

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