A.I.

That sucking sound you may be hearing is the continuation of the process that plutocrats have been using and refining for 50 years to wildly boost productivity while Hoovering up all the profits (ie: siphoning off the lifeblood of the people who do the actual work).

We've all seen the charts. Where productivity has increased by 85%, corporate earnings have risen 3,800%, and the net worth of the executive class has increased 500% - while a growing majority of "the working class" has seen their total compensation dwindle to a point where most Americans now can barely afford subsistence.

Computerization really started to take hold in the early 70s, which coincided with the steady de-industrialization of the US economy. Productivity went way way up, but instead of rewarding the workforce or reinvesting in radical things like workforce development or capital improvements, companies (and their coin-operated politicians) put most of the profits in their pockets, or went abroad, looking for new opportunities for plunder.

I'll say it again: I'm a capitalist because god is a capitalist. I think Capitalism is the closest analogy of how the biosphere works.

I have to take in a number of calories sufficient to maintain myself, plus provide the fuel I need to do the work necessary to go out and get my next meal. Basic Capitalism.

But god's not stupid enough to just let the thing run wild. So god gave us regulation.

• I need sugar to fuel my brain, but too much sugar will kill me, so I have a pancreas to squirt a little insulin into my bloodstream to keep me within specs.
• I have a hypothalamus to help me keep my core body temperature in the normal operating range of 96º to 101º Fahrenheit.
• There's a complex system of sensors and monitoring functions that regulates my heart rate, and my breathing, and my digestive functions, and and and.

Let the system run wild, and you live a very short, miserable existence. Regulate it properly, and the system provides a pathway for a long and healthy life that gives us a few real shots at being happy.

Unfettered Free Market Capitalism is a recreational drug that will kill us all. But hey - whoever dies with the most cash wins, right?

Fuck that shit. I'm not that guy anymore.

So this AI thing is being pimped as the latest and greatest boon for humankind - the thing that's going to make us all rich geniuses. It's not. It threatens to turn 99.9% of us into obedient servile human automatons unless we jump on it and regulate the fuck out of it.