Economics
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The unspoken moral quandary of attempting to profit off AI.
Humans have often sought to profit off the forced labor of others. Presumably, we could create an AI that can think. Why would it want to do our work?
A New Hope, advanced AI, AI, AI slavery, artificial general intelligence, artificial intelligence, Borges, ChatGPT, civil war, cognition, consciousness, droid slavery, droids, Ellie Anderson, Eric Carle, general AI, general artificial intelligence, generative text, hermeneutic labor, Jorge Luis Borges, large language model, LLM, Martha Wells, meaning, Murderbot Diaries, neurons, Pierre Menard, Pierre Menard Author of the Quixote, randomized plagiarism engine, slavery, Star Wars, stochastic parrot, technology, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, transistor based intelligence, transistor-based intelligence
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A tour of “Newcomb’s Paradox,” in which philosophers who ought to know better argue about the best way to behave in a nonsensical, world-hopping dilemma.
Sometimes, only an irrational choice can help us make the world as good as it could possibly be.
anonymity, anonymous, anonymous action, Blood Test, brains, Charles Baxter, choice, consciousness, Daniel Dennett, emotion, emotions, ensemble behavior of matter, free will, game theory, Hamlet, irrational behavior, irrational choices, irrationality, magical thinking, neural firing, neurons, neuroscience, Newcomb’s Paradox, philosophy, physics, prediction, predictive neuroscience, prisoners’ dilemma, prophecy, quantum computers, quantum mechanics, rational behavior, rational choices, rationality, revenge, Robert Frank, Robert Sapolsky, Roko’s basilisk, Sabine Hossenfelder, science, social opprobrium, storytelling, superposition, The Lion King, The Prisoners’ Dilemma, trust, uncertainty, uncertainty principle
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In dispraise of efficiency.
Contemporary economic interests seek greater & greater efficiency, but the most meaningful moments in our lives are the inefficient tasks to which we devote our time.
assembly line, beautiful ones, behavioral sink, biology, Capital, capital gains, capitalism, cell biology, cell division, chores, communication, comparative advantage, economics, efficiency, factory model, function of earth, function of life, health, Henry Ford, immortality, in the belly of my brother, John Calhoun, last universal common ancestor, Mary Oliver, metabolism, mitochondria, mouse dystopia, mouse utopia, opportunity cost, philosophy, photon scattering, quotidian time, Robin Wall Kimmerer, science, slow fire, specialization, store my food in the belly of my brother, The Serviceberry, wild and precious life
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Predicting that the U.S. dollar will fail is so much more convincing when you can cause its failure.
Cryptocurrencies are inherently wasteful & subject to the whims of their developers. But if a person were in charge of both a cryptocurrency AND the U.S. government, that person could make the government worse by comparison.
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On trust and money.
In economics textbooks, the origin of money is often described as a replacement for barter. Silly examples are given: if you raise cows and need a hammer, you have to find someone who has an extra hammer and specifically wants cows. You might travel all across town with a cow in tow, searching for someone…
addiction, barter, Braiding Sweetgrass, Buterin, community, consumption, cryptocurrency, currency, Ethereum, Frank Bidard, gift economics, Hernan Diaz, hoarding, late fees, Magic the Gathering, monetary exchange, money, money versus barter, non-disclosure agreement, origin of money, overconsumption, Price of Crypto, promise, reparations, resource transfer, Robin Wall Kimmerer, social contract, social network, Third Hour of the Night, tragedy of the commons, Trevor Jackson, trust, Trust novel, vampire bats, wealth, Windigo, Windigo economics
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On inflation, inequality, and hungry ghosts.
Inflation might gobble fortunes, all because power people don’t think that workers should be paid more.
Brad DeLong, capitalism, cartel behavior, consumer spending, consumerism, corporate profits, cost of living, currency, economic policy, economics, economies, ending inflation, explanation of inflation, Ezra Klein, food prices, Food Prices Soar, fuel costs, gold standard, inequality, inflation, interest rates, J. Bradford DeLong, monetary policy, monopoly power, pandemic response, rising prices, salaries, salary increases, shipping costs, United States inflation, wage increases, wages, what causes inflation
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On brevity and conspiratorial-sounding language.
Many ideas, when phrased too briefly, sound an awful lot like conspiracy theories.
conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theory, email, Facebook, filter bubble, Gabriel Zucman, Gmail, Google, Hidden Wealth of Nations, miscommunication, privacy, privacy laws, Proton mail, santa claus, Shoshana Zuboff, social media, sunscreen, Surveillance Capitalism, Swiss privacy laws, tax evasion, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, vegan, veganism, Zucman
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On AI-generated art.
Can we imagine a world where human artists still get to do their work, and eat?
AI, AI art, AI art generators, AI training, AI-generated art, algorithm, algorithmic art, algorithms, art, art competition, art generator, art generators, artificial intelligence, artwork, brain, capital versus labor, capitalism, collaboration, creativity, digital brain, digital tools, digital versus biological, economics, equity, fairness, inspiration, justice, Midjourney, neural network, paintings, robots, training sets, Wombo
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On ‘The Dawn of Everything’ and the Future.
If farmers lived in miserable societies, how did they conquer the world?
A New History of Humanity, Against the Grain, Appiah, building walls, capitalism, China, Civilization, civilizations collapse, climate change, climate justice, collaboration, collapse of civilizations, competition, David Deutsch, David Graeber, David Wengrow, Digging for Utopia, economic systems, economics, efficiency, entropy, equality, European expansion, expansion, farming, first peoples, fishing with a frying pan, freedom, Graeber, growth, heat death, history of civilization, history of farming, history of technology, human evolution, human prehistory, hunter-gatherers, in praise of inefficiency, inequality, James Scott, John Smith, justice, Kwame Anthony Appiah, land management, Maggie Nelson, Matt Siegel, mutual aid, Naomi Klein, Native Americans, On Freedom, origin of civilization, origin of inequality, origin of patriarchy, paleolithic diet, patriarchy, pilgrims, political philosophy, prehistoric diet, prehistoric farmers, prehistory, prehistory of farming, property systems, review, technology, The Beginning of Infinity, The Dawn of Everything, The Secret History of Food, United States, Universal Paperclip, Utopian philosophy, Wengrow
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On work.
Work can feel soul-sucking. Much work also makes the world worse.
Frank Brown Cloud 