As the title says, “MEPs want ‘free cash’ to address job-killer robots threat” :
EU legislators today (12 January) called for a universal basic income to combat the looming risk of job loss by the onward march of robots, as well as concerns about European welfare systems…
But this new wave of intelligent gadgets and autonomous robots could also destroy thousands of jobs without creating new ones in the same proportion, warned a non-legislative report adopted by the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI).
The development of robotics and AI has raised “concerns about the future of employment, the viability of social welfare and security systems” and, ultimately, is “creating the potential for increased inequality in the distribution of wealth and influence”.
The biggest threat humanity could face would be a fully automated post-scarcity. Once machines make everything we need, and nobody needs to do anything but eat, sleep, and mate, that is all that humans will evolve to do. The explosion of rabbits and the atrophy of amygdalae will be beyond measure.
The key at that point will be for humans to have the ability to flee the planet. If K-strategists are trapped on the planet, they will be subsumed in a tsunami of rabbits that will multiply far faster than even the most diligent killer K-population could eradicate them.
If however, the K-strategist can escape into the universe, you will see a vibrant K-society arise in space, as the planet descends into the most horrific dystopia of unmotivated stoners and hedonists, all maintaining and expressing their vestigial rabbit urges to betray, backstab, virtue signal, narcissistic-attention-whore, bully, compete for victim status, and seek violent outsiders to oppress their enemies.
It is interesting that even though they are undoubtedly unaware of where their urges lead, there are already rabbits seeking to put the pieces in place to create that exact world. It is what they are working toward, and claiming should be enacted today, even before we are ready for it.
Rabbits are robots programmed to destroy civilization.
Spread r/K Theory, because we do not want to be overrun by a tsunami of rabbits
[…] Rabbits Look For Free Resources To Create Utopia […]
What is to stop people from competing for control of the robots much like male animals compete for prime hunting territory?
Free cash and Human rights for robots… the EU is out of control!
Like the bunch of Pirates that they “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”
Perhaps space due to its inherent resource scarcity is permanent K.
True. Good point. K’s escaping into a permanently K environment.
Fully automated post-scarcity is a utopian vision, and as such I don’t worry about it much. And even if you could create it, the rabbits, without even desiring to, would find a way to royally screw it up and wreck it with their rabbity shenanigans within a few decades. All things create their opposites. It is the way of things.
Or, in the alternative, any social group that artificially imposes K selection (like the Spartan nobility) will quickly conquer and enslave the world.
Although Spartans with their too short reproductive ages at which they are allowed to marry and women’s empowerment ensured that they ran out of men and ending up defeated in the end.
Hi! Do you think the human form can evolve beyond the r/K paradigm? This paradigm has been on for a while now, may be time for something new to emerge.
“…The biggest threat humanity could face would be a fully automated post-scarcity…”
I don’t think this is true. You can take care of basic needs with small amounts of money. Of course most people will want more. There’s where K selection will kick in. I also believe that if the basics are provided for there’s a lot of people who could do great things. Especially in the realm of software. We’re already seeing this in open source software. People with extra time are coding because they enjoy creating. A very, very, very large part of the science created in the past few centuries was created by Gentlemen who didn’t have to work for a living and took up science to satiate their curiosity. Those more r are going to breed no matter what but what if each individual got to keep their basic income no matter what, except children are NOT paid for. You only got the basic income at 18. This means that the poor would be much better off married with two basic incomes.
People choosing to be more productive when their basic needs are met is K-selected behavior, but I’m not sure it’s correct to say that is “K-selection kicking in.” The environmental conditions are still r-selective and tend to promote rabbitry in the long run. K type traits do not vanish overnight, but it’s a dangerous fallacy to take for granted that they will keep working in a way that sustains civilizational progress.
True.
I am interested in your opinion on how some K-selected animals like Spotted Hyenas have the females assuming the role of the K-strategist equivalent of the Male of our species with the smaller weaker males assuming the submissive position.
Lions which are on the same level weaponize the males as is the pattern for humans too.
How would evolution select for that whilst we would evolve males that are weaponized and dominant while the females are the gentle feminine nurturers?
I do not know enough about hyena life history, but I would guess they probably get a lot of carrion with limited risk, so they may be technically K, but with an r-aspect affecting their psychology.
I’ve always assumed K women take a more passive path because part of the plan is for them to actively avoid conflict and danger, and as they do they guide children away from it. So whether a lion pops out, or it is an invading force, the initial plan is the male deals with it, but if that fails, the woman has guided the children away in the interim.
If I see females programmed to dominate and take charge, my assumption is children are low in value, and males are not incentivized to care about them.
”I do not know enough about hyena life history, but I would guess they probably get a lot of carrion with limited risk, so they may be technically K, but with an r-aspect affecting their psychology.”
From what I read Lions and Hyenas are mortal enemies since they compete for the same prey and often kill each other. Although it appears that Lions on the whole are larger and stronger than hyenas. Hence on a one-on-one basis Lions beat hyenas but when Lions are outnumbered 4 to 1 then they are forced to yield or get killed.
The presence of a Male Lions often tips the balance substantially in the Lions favor in competition with hyenas.