Part 1 of this “Abundance Paradigm” series discussed predictions that artificial intelligence and robotics will in the relatively near future produce an economy of extraordinary abundance – one in which most labor is automated. The contention of Elon Musk is that this development will require some form of government-issued “Universal High Income” (UHI) to provide the consumer demand necessary to keep the economy functioning in a world where machines do most of the work.
Based on those projections, I argued that if a UHI were to become necessary, it could not realistically be financed through taxes or debt alone, but would require some form of debt-free sovereign money issuance — a modern version of Lincoln’s Greenbacks. The usual objection to government-issued money is that it would drive up prices and devalue the currency due to “too much money chasing too few goods.” But in this case, we would have too many goods and not enough money to provide the consumer demand to move them off the shelves. A source of abundant new money would actually be needed to keep trade flowing.
Objections came thick and fast. Some critics saw the AI revolution not as liberation but as a technocratic nightmare: AI surveillance, programmable digital money and “smart cities,” centralized control systems, and a future in which most people will own nothing while a tiny elite owns the machines, the data, and even the government. Others challenged the underlying premises: Would AI really generate such extraordinary abundance? Would productivity rise enough to justify something like a UHI? Or is this simply another round of Silicon Valley hype detached from economic reality?
Those are legitimate questions that deserve serious consideration, serious enough to require more than one sequel to address them. But whether or not we approve of Elon Musk, Sam Altman, or the AI industry itself, the AI revolution is already underway, driven by forces far larger than any individual actor. Businesses want AI because it lowers costs and increases productivity. Governments want it because they view it as strategically essential. Consumers increasingly rely on it because it saves time and improves convenience. The genie is out of the bottle.
Continue readingFiled under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: AI driven energy systems, AI energy consumption, AI replacing workers, AI revolution, automation and jobs, capitalism vs socialism, China AI policy, China UBI debate, data center water use, NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE BANK, primary water drilling, Universal basic income | 5 Comments »
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AI Abundance, Part 5: Meaning Beyond Work
Image by ScheerPost.com.
Discussions of artificial intelligence typically begin with the question, What happens when the machines take our jobs? For thousands of years, work has been the means by which we fed our families, earned our place in society, and gave structure to our lives. We have come to equate paid employment with identity.
That presumption may soon be obsolete.
When Elon Musk proposed replacing Universal Basic Income with what he calls a Universal High Income—a level of income sufficient for everyone to live comfortably while intelligent machines produce much of the goods and services society requires—critics warned that people would become lazy. They would stop pursuing college degrees, stop starting businesses, stop inventing, stop contributing. Without jobs, it was argued, life itself would lose meaning and purpose.
Interestingly, humanity’s oldest written history begins with the premise that the purpose of humans is to work. The earliest known writing was impressed into clay tablets in ancient Sumer more than five thousand years ago. The Sumerian Atrahasis tablets tell of sky-deities called Annunaki, cast in modern “ancient architect” scenarios as extraterrestrial engineers. The heavy labor required to maintain life on earth was delegated to junior gods called Igigi, who finally grew weary of the arduous work, laid down their tools and rebelled.
The remedy was to create a new being to carry their burden. This was done by genetic manipulation to upgrade the highest life form found here, creating the human species. Whether we read that as history, allegory, or mythology, its underlying message is that humanity was conceived as a labor force – and human civilization begins with a control system to manage the laborers.
Continue reading →Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: Self-directed Education, UNEMPLOYMENT, Universal basic income, Universal High Income | 3 Comments »