Living in the Post Automation World

   With the rate of automation soaring, many jobs typically performed by humans are being rendered obsolete in favour of machines. With no sign of alleviating, although production is increasing dramatically, unemployment rates are steadily rising. This leads to a conundrum. Machine production is faster, more precise, and capable of great volume at little cost. By eliminating the need for human labour though we are cutting many people's abilities to actually consume certain goods, and on an emotional level, robbing people of their ability to pursue meaning and happiness in their lives through some form of financial stability, and performance of meaningful work.

   My proposed solution to this, would be to allow employees to invest in the automation of their work. For example, if Company A plans to replace five thousand workers with a series of ten machines, those who stand to lose their employment at Company A should have the opportunity to buy in to these machines. They could purchase a percentage of that machine's cost, and be entitled to a percentage of that machine's productivity based on how much they invested. Being an investor though they would also be responsible for maintenance costs based on their ownership percentage. Companies would most likely need to cap the sellable percentage of a machine so as not to sell off all of it's productivity, and also to accommodate the number of potential buyers (for example as above, if five thousand people stand to lose, and up to fifty percent of each of the ten machines can be purchased, it all needs to be broken up so that each person has an opportunity to buy in. If not all the possible "shares" are bought, then there could be a second round of buy in by those who choose to, or have the money to buy more).

   This not only helps the company by offsetting potential machine costs from purchasing to maintenance, but the employees who buy in would still receive a monthly cheque based on their buy in amount and the productivity of that given machine. On a more global level, humanity would literally be investing in the future. The raw cost of a new machine would be shared among employees and company, as well as the ability to enjoy the fruits of it's labour. With steady investment in the latest, best performing machines, I believe we would see a dramatic rise in both productivity and efficiency of these machines. In doing this, we leave the opportunity open for people to make an income, but not necessarily require constant employment. People could then develop their hobbies, live their lives, and yet still keep the consumer market running.

   To keep income flowing for a family indefinitely, perhaps the shares purchased could be passed from one generation to the next. Once automation has reached a sufficiently high level where finding employment at a basic level of any sort becomes exceedingly difficult, perhaps companies could still hold interview processes for potential human "employees". For example, say McDonalds replaced all it's service staff with machines. As a young person with no income, I could apply for a "job" with them. If I would be someone they would have hired when they still had positions for human service workers, I would then be given the opportunity to buy a very small parentage of productivity (akin to a minimum wage type scenario).

   Automation is the way of the future, there is no sign of it stopping. To continue to improve the standard of living and adapt to the changes we are creating, this seems a necessary step so that humanity can enjoy the best of both worlds. Automation without the inability of man to benefit from such.

A Groovatron Named Paul: Part 1

   I'm Paul, your typical junior high student. I don't mean to brag but I've got some serious hall-cred, I'm the trendiest trendsetter, and nothing beats playing on my phone whilst sitting near my weirdo best friend Arthur, who, by the way, tries far too hard to be a robot. Sometimes he even thinks he is. I'm positive I've caught him taking notes in binary. I'm all he's got though, and boy is he lucky to have such a cool friend like me.

   Life was as smooth as streaming a youtube video advert free on kicked up wifi. Nice. As with any good story though, there must be a reality tearing, punch to the face it's so true realisation. It was the seventh of may, a beautiful... I was adopted. Sorry, That's the important part. I, Paul, had been adopted at a young age. I could't believe it. My mother and father were bewildered I had never caught on. They said it was "quite obvious" and found my melodramatic reaction somewhat confusing. They tried so hard to explain everything away "We're human, and… you are clearly a robot. Groovatron 2000 model to be more precise. It says so on the lower edge of your torso chassis!"

 Whatever. All these years I though I was just born with a sweet tatt. The ladies love a sweet tatt. But apparently the story of how I ended up where I am now is that some robocouple ordered me off of Ebay, but could't pay the shipping. I was sent back to the warehouse where there was some minor damage inflicted upon my groove modulator not covered by warranty. You know what else isn't covered by warranty? My GREAT sense of humour. In any case my price was slashed and I was gobbled up by my now Mum and Dad (I guess there was some truth to the story that babies are brought home by the FedEx guy). They unpacked me mint from the box, which only served to increase my value thank you, and I've been chillin mother flippin villain ever since.

   Until now that is.

   After this whole "We've only loved you for the past fifteen years because we got you for three easy instalments of $29.99" crap (my words, not theirs), I decided I needed a change. I promptly got on the first ride out of town and headed into the big city to find myself. Of course I didn't go alone. My bromo sapien Arthur was eager for an adventure. As fast as I could say "let's go" I got an enthusiastic "affirmative". And so we were off like the most hip bandits you can imagine. The beginning of great things lie ahead of us. The GREATEST things…

Societal Benefits of Extended Lifespan

   When the topic of extended lifespan comes up, many times the focus is on the negative impacts such a change would bring. Things like competition for already scarce resources, overpopulation, and an accumulation of power in the older, more powerful generations are some of the fodder used to justify that such a change towards indefinite lifespan would be less than savoury, especially for the masses. I would like to focus on the benefits such a change could bring, as well as adaptive behaviours that could come along with it. As an aside, when I say "extended lifespan" I mean extended in the healthful sense, wherein decrepitude is either put off or eliminated.

   To start, lifespan has already increased dramatically since prehistory, and particularly so in recent modern times. Some may argue that developments in medicine and sanitation are the key source of this increase, but I would say it's a positive feedback loop. As these developments allowed us to live longer, people had more time to put their minds to creating more beneficial technologies, which in turn allowed for a longer lifespan, etc. And the benefits have trickled down, I may add, at a faster and faster rate. Although the rich do benefit by affording themselves the very best there is to offer, many of us still have access to wonderful technologies. Within a few short years what was once only available to the rich soon becomes a staple of the average consumer. A greater increase in lifespan could be an enhancement on this process.

   Looking towards the future, a society that has already achieved life extending technologies will have some key beneficial changes. For one, with an extended lifespan people would feel less inclined to have children. Although many still most probably would, they may not consider it until they are very old in our current terms, perhaps only a couple per century. Such a slow in birth rates would lead to a much more manageable human population growth and allow responses to things like overpopulation to be dealt with well in advance. The "stretching" as it could be said, of a person accomplishing typical life goals (having children, buying a house, starting a career, etc.) could be beneficial to the education system as well. If a person has exponentially more time to spend learning, and trying new things, who knows what kind of innovations could follow, along with a more educated society in general. Just as an extended childhood has been advantageous for humans relative to other animals, an extended "childhood" relative to our current notions could hold unseen benefits.

   A society with a longer lifespan is also more likely to take proactive measures against future threats. Our current society is more reactive because many of the threats we are dealing with will not much affect our lives, or at least not for many years to come. If you knew for example, that the worst possible effects of climate change would have a direct impact on your life though, you would be much more willing to take action now. Although at it's base it seems selfish, this very behaviour could save humanity as a whole by allowing us the opportunity to think ahead and actually take measures in advance of serious catastrophes.

   It's always good to weigh the pros and cons of a new technology, and the promise and peril it brings with it. Our ability though to deal with the consequences of many technologies is enhanced by lifespan increases, not detracted from.

Peter Burns & the Jelly

 PB&J is the story of one young Peter Burns. Peter Burns, all of twelve years old, goes for a pleasant ocean swim one day with his close friends. Whilst partaking in frolics and the delights of the magnificent sea, a jellyfish did undulate his way, as they are wont to do. Neither grasped the consequences of this chance meeting. Just as they engaged in a caustic handshake of sorts the two were freaky fridayed by some errant wifi waves seeking a home.
 Peter Burns, once average boy, is now a genius among his new Jellyfish brethren, while the former jelly inhabitant struggles to control even the most basic functions of it's new found body. As Peter Burns now finds himself with all the time in the world, he reflects on his life, deep meaningful questions of existence, and continually invents and tests harebrained ways to attempt retrieving his body! Meanwhile, his friends do they're best to minimise the multiple ways the Jelly ignorantly threatens Peter Burns' social life and physical well being.

Ecology of Ideas

 We are currently living in a time that is unprecedented in the creation, sharing, and access to ideas. New ideas are constantly being produced by both individuals and groups alike. Some serve a purpose, others are dreams or fantasies, many are retoolings of old ideas in a fresh way, and more still are created just for the sake of existing. To me, I feel the era we are going through can be likened to a "Cambrian Explosion" of ideas. During the Cambrian Explosion in Earth's history life erupted into an unimaginable number of complex creatures which, over time and refining laid the foundation for the major domains and kingdoms of life, as well as early structures of modern ecosystems.
  This is directly relatable to the current trend we're seeing in the proliferation and rapid evolution of ideas right now. We've crossed a threshold wherein the complexity and diversity of ideas has increased dramatically along with their sheer volume. I would say we are in the process of creating an ecosystem where ideas compete for resources such as popularity, and create dynamic systems by interacting much like actual life forms. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. Will the growth go on unchecked? Or, will certain strings of ideas prove to dominate the landscape creating an interdependent system just like modern ecosystems found in nature?

Grounds for the Equivalence of Nothing and Something

Recent exploration both virtual and mental has left me pondering relationships between the idea of nothing, and something. Nothing tends to be a bit of a loaded term in and of itself. It can be used to describe the lack of a specific something, a vacuum (which in almost all cases is not a complete lack of everything), the absolute absence of everything, and can even become a thing itself (as in a hole). I would like to attempt at describing a connection between the definition of nothing as an absolute absence of anything, its vacuum definition, and the existence of a something (be it an entire universe, a single photon, or anything else you could imagine). To my mind, it is not inconceivable that there are many ways to have both nothing and something at the same time, and is in fact, the likeliest scenario. By this, I mean that it is much more likely to have a collection of things that together sum to nothing, rather than just a pure and eternal nothingness.

Using numbers as an example, there is only one number that defines absolute nothingness, and as you've already guessed it's zero. Out of the infinite scheme of numbers there is only one zero, and yet, there is an infinite number of other ways to get zero.

1+(-1)=0

(-1)+3+(-2)=0

3*(-3)+9=0

You get the idea...

You can have as many somethings as you want, and they will sum to a perfect nothing as long as there is enough of a counter something. Something and counter something need not necessarily even exist at the same time, as long as the average is equivalent to nothing having existed. You could have:

At T1 Nothing

At T2 Something

At T3 Nothing

At T4 Counter Something

This is very simplified and need not be so black and white, but it gets the point across. You could even get the same result by removing both T1, and T3.

In conclusion, I'm stating that it's much more natural that the world exists in the delicate and ambiguous state of being both something and absolutely nothing at the same time because there are many more ways for it to do so, and is therefore much easier than maintaining, or even attaining to begin with, a perfect state of absolute nothingness.

A something from nothing isn't so improbable. It's probably the status quo.

Television Analogy of the Mind

As you may have seen in prior posts, I'm firmly rooted in a physicalist, reductionist view on things. When it comes to consciousness, or the workings of a mind in general (not just human), I see it's source as a collection of immensely intricate interactions among neurones, brain chemicals, external (environmental and experiential), and internal (amount of sleep, what you ate, levels of various hormones, etc.) states.
A useful if not overly simplistic analogy I have come up with to describe my view of apparent conscious behaviour I call the TV Analogy. I liken the pixels of a TV screen to the firing of neurones, and the input cable as external stimuli. As the TV receives information from the input cable, the state of it's pixels is changed thereby creating an overall change in what appears on the TV from the point of an outside observer. As this continually happens, we are given the illusion of motion and 'livelihood' to what is displayed.
I find this mirrors well (again, enormously oversimplified), with the action of the brain and its effect on apparent behaviour. As new external stimuli is received, the state of the brain is changed at the neuronal level, thereby changing the internal mental state and behaviour of the being. The sensory nerves and organs of the body act like the input cable, and the neurones and ultimate behaviour that they cause, can be equated with the TV display.