Lugh

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
 

The new pope's choice of name was deliberate; he chose it to honor Pope Leo XIII who was Pope from 1878 - 1903. Leo XIII is famous for taking a left-wing stance on workers' rights in response to the Industrial Revolution, and calling for state pensions, social security, and other reforms rooted in social democracy.

It will be interesting to see what Pope Leo XIV calls for. Universal Basic Income? It wouldn't surprise me. The day is soon coming that humans won't be able to economically compete with ultra-cheap AI/robot-employee staffed businesses.

Some people scoff at the notion of the Catholic Church concerning itself with such things. If they do, they're underestimating the Church's vast soft power. Vatican City might be the world's smallest state, but the Catholic Church is arguably the preeminent global superpower when it comes to soft power.

There are 1.4 billion Catholics, and if the church decides to support UBI, it will have a vast reach to sway politicians in 100+ countries on almost every continent.

 

In an interview this week, Mark Zuckerberg said most Americans have only 3 friends, but they'd like 15. Never fear, he has a solution to how to get 5 times more friends. Meta will create AI friends for you. As it will own them, as befits the world's second largest advertising company, their primary purpose will really be to sell you stuff.

Even in an episode of 'Black Mirror', this vision of the future would rank as one of the bleaker dystopian hellscapes. It says something about how out of touch Big Tech has become with the lives of ordinary people, it never even occurred to Mark Zuckerberg how appalling this sounds to most people.

 

Switching Chinese factory jobs to America has been in the news a lot lately. Many people have pointed out it doesn't make much sense. Do Americans really want sweatshop-wage jobs making sneakers?

Another reason it doesn't make sense is that China is dumping those jobs anyway - replacing the humans with robots. The numbers are startling. If the trends of the last ten years continue, China will be creating 1 million industrial robots by 2029. By 2032, it will be creating more industrial robots, than there were new human jobs in the US in 2024. Robots may even be adopted on an s-curve, and be adopted in far higher numbers sooner.

Where is this heading? Will the robots keep the aging Chinese population economically afloat? Will using humans in factories instead of robots in the US be seen as a noble alternative to the socialism of UBI?

Source: Rise of China's Robotics Industry: from Manufacturing Arms to Embodied AI

 

NASA's plans are up in the air once again. The latest plans, yet to be approved by Congress, seek to ditch the SLS/Artemis plans for the Moon, and instead focus on sending people to Mars. That suits SpaceX's agenda, and would send NASA's money their way.

This will make it certain the first human base on the Moon will be Chinese. That is planned for the early 2030's and in recent days the Chinese have spoken more about its location. They are mapping the lunar south pole for water, but still haven't found the ideal spot, but that the 2026 Chang'e-7 mission might narrow it down further.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The article says the difference is that the human drivers are "on call" self-employed contractors. Therefore not a 'cost' when not being used.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The Russian propaganda seems much more effective with the right-wing people. Is that an AI thing, or are they more susceptible for other reasons?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm sick of hearing Musk's plans for it, those will never pan out. But humans are probably destined to leave Earth and spread out someday - that I still think will happen, and is worth considering.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I was wondering would they have over-heating problems, but the energy is so small it can probably be dissipated elsewhere.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

As places are limited, they need to focus on those with talent and ability.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

If you google Hitler's paintings you can see why he was rejected. They're flat, rigid and lacking in creativity - perhaps not surprising for a fascist megalomaniac. I'm curious to see what the AI will learn here. Lots of ai-generated imagery is technically good, but can it really be said to have creativity?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

As radioactive decay can't be stopped, I'm assuming this emits power continuously. Whatever this is used for won't have any On/Off buttons.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This exponential rate of progress has been observed many times with different types of AI, here's a recent example of it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

My reasoning is based on the fact they are selling similar to these in the $20k price range. Buying them means they cost a fraction of employing a minimum wage worker in western countries.

They are embodied AI, so improving at the rate AI is. That is exponentially. Meaning iterations of these may be 32, 64, 128, etc times more powerful in the 2030s, and even cheaper.

I think it is very reasonable to say they will be common in the 2030s.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

With upcoming space telescopes in the 2030s, there should be a few capable of analyzing exoplanet atmospheres. Exciting to think we may be soon able to deduce the presence of carbon-based life in another planetary system.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, I wonder how far they can extend the magnetic fields that power them? Even if it is relatively short range, they look really cheap to make, so you could have thousands of them with sensors to scan localized areas.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I get that capacitators are only good for seconds at a time, but given their other advantages, I wonder why people don't build batteries with them, where hundreds or thousands of cells are individual capacitators that get used in sequence.

view more: ‹ prev next ›