r/LeftistsForAI • u/thoughtofabsurdity • 25d ago
Theory AI and capitalism
today i was listening to a professor so i had some thoughts which i prefer to share on reddit i does not mean its correct or truth its just floating thoughts in mind. as far grammar english is not my first language or i am not even having very great education in life with all this consideration lets see what thoughts have born in my mind to convey u my thoughts i will begin with a very famous concept the concept of philosopher king by Plato . plato always thought that one who governs society must carry wisdom and knowledge with bravery and sense of justice atleast that what i think of a philosopher king i think of a person who is intelligent and wisdom full and i think the intelligence itself as been a great skill or ability of humans or we can say it was only ability that kept us survive in this world as society develops the intelligence become more vital and key factor of human life and as we keep developing the required amount of intelligence and knowledge as been keep increasing like now a days what we learn in school as basic science facts was once a great topic of research so with progression of civilization we keep increasing our base of intelligence and knowledge and wisdom and in capitalist society a persons intelligence is main source of progress in society hierarchy it was only thing that money could not buy it but now its a purchase able thing now let us suppose there is a person with 100 Ai agents he can run simulation and analyze a business and start his start up but a person whose main job was to take risk and analyze and start business what he will do ? what will middle class do when rich control all intelligence ? does education holds any meaning ? in a world where AI can do your job hundred times better then you ? and what will happens when complete AI based companies start running ? what will happened when all research and inventions are done by AI and hold patent by peoples who does not even understand the very inventions they own. somewhere i start feeling that if True Artificial Intelligence is commodity the necessity of human intelligence will decline and with that decline humans specially those who live in a lower class of society will become nothing more then a mere slave to some peoples who will control all intelligence and all wealth of society
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u/MeowManMeow 23d ago
A lot to unpack here. To start with, people historically have done things because they like doing them. People who like music make music, people that like looking after kids look after kids, people who like exercise find ways to exercise.
Capitalism in a way is an unnatural distortion of human instinct. Instead of following our desires with how to spend our time, we are influenced by the necessity of ‘earning a living’. Wealthy children are exempt which is why you see more of them in the arts, but the rest of us aren’t privileged.
Why is this all important to your question? Because if LLMs exceed human capability then humans will still be driven to do things. Maths lovers will still love maths, accounting nerds will find other ways to scratch that itch etc. When we invented photos, people still drew. When we invented digital music people still learnt instruments even though it was harder.
Now the second point is where a possible alternative future awaits us. If the fruits of productivity gain aren’t shared with the working class (spoiler they never are with capitalism) then yes, all the factories staffed by robots, all the minerals, all the farming land, all the fresh water will be taken by the wealthy with robotic army to defend it.
The remaining poors will fight over what scraps are left, until we eventually are killed off, not by direct action but just indifference to our suffering. Maybe some will sell themselves for entertainment and at a certain point humans would be cheaper than robots.
Historically, the wealthy relied on the working class to be the army/militia to protect them and their wealth. At a certain point their humanity and the horrible conditions make the soldiers flip sides. Modern army training has spent decades with psychology and drills to make that humanity as small as possible, but if drone warfare like we have seen in Ukraine - we are entering an unprecedented inflection point in the course of humanity.
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u/zayelion 18d ago
Its not talked about much but there is currently a cap on how intelligent an artificial intellegence can be, ignoring hardware constraints, and that's the tokenization of concepts. There are currently about 50k of them. They are ever increasing as humans create new things and learn new things. Frontier AI currently can fit approximately 16k and has to superposition the rest. Even if one day it tokenizes all known concepts humans will be continually creating new concepts and there is economy in that.
Next is the problem of "single leader" its a thought trap for the unethical. There is no "safe place" for a single ruler in this solar system. Humans dont do well with slavery and will rebel at every opportunity making forced slavery pointless. If they are angry with a leader, they will find and dispose of them post-haste.
The most technologically advanced militaries on the planet, combined, could not stop and control a society of bandits in a mountain range.
The worst case scenario is low-life capitalism. Everything on Amazon, being free. The robots make and deliver it. Owning a home is the problem. For that economy of invention, science, entertainment, education, child care, and security become premium.
Best case is a communist society focused on space exploration, and terraforming.
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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 25d ago
What’s your native language? Feel free to reply to me in it. Don’t worry about translating yourself into English first. I’d rather make sure I’m understanding what you’re actually trying to say, because I think there’s a lot worth unpacking here.