So what do we do when when nobody has a job?

[The Mad Monk]

Watch the video, and we'll discuss!

[Felch]

Smoke weed.

[Felch]

The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots.

[KrazyHorse]

Remember: when nobody needs a job, then all of us are equal. And this is the promise of idealists through history. Unlimited consumption without effort. God bless the machines

[Aeson]

We just have to make sure to write the AIs to develop insatiable lust for human contact and then we can all be prostitutes.

[The Mad Monk]

[The Mad Monk]

Remember: when nobody needs a job, then all of us are equal. And this is the promise of idealists through history. Unlimited consumption without effort. God bless the machines

The unlimited part sounds a bit off, but how about a Basic Income?

[C0ckney]

what happens when the super intelligent robots decide they could get along much better without we sacks of skin and bones.

[Dr Strangelove]

Why should there be unlimited consumption? When the corporations replace employees with robots will the employees own the robots? I think not. The employees will get unemployment compensation for as long as legally mandated, then they can go move in with Mom and Dad. I imagine that people will continue in management and the professions, at least in a supervisory role. For the rest of you - Soylent Green is People!

[Lorizael]

My vote is for pursuing creative endeavors and learning for its own sake.

[The Mad Monk]

That seems the most likely outcome. Well, that or mass die offs. Or both.

It depends on whether you see the glass as half full or shattered to pieces.

[ColdWizard]

I expect some sort of Spacer-Settler schism.

[pchang]

I'll just hack the banking system to give me an unlimited credit line.

[The Mad Monk]

If you can do it, so can everyone else.

[Lorizael]

what happens when the super intelligent robots decide they could get along much better without we sacks of skin and bones.

While this is a possibility, it assumes something rather naive: that AI will have motivations that translate cleanly into human intention. There's no particularly good reason why that would be the case. What is more worrisome to the AI enthusiasts is something called subgoal stomp, where short-sighted programming puts too much weight on a subgoal, leading an AI to "stomp" over more important goals.

Subgoal stomp happens in humans. For example, evolution made sugars taste really ****ing good, because they're a great source of calories and it's important to hoard them in case of shortages. But when calories are no longer scarce, evolution's short-sighted design leads to subgoal stomp, causing us to consume calories in excess, leading to diseases of affluence. So we end up killing ourselves, but not because of any malice or evil intentions.

With AI, the thought is not that AI will suddenly develop the urge to kill all humans, but that some calculus may cause an AI to lose sight of the value of humans in favor of another goal, even if that other goal is ultimately subservient to the goal of human welfare. So we all get turned into paperclips, as TMM's comic references.