Justice and Knowing

A few notes on the flurry of news media on AI technology and fears of new AI monopoly owners held by tech giants, or the same powers open source released for rogue actors and rogue states to exploit. Some of this commentary is good, some terrible.

The biggest tragedy is all the politicians and commentariate screaming bloody murder about “jobs” being taken away. They are utterly ignorant and have zero comprehension of MMT. I think this needs endless highlighting, and I will not relent. Any chance to repeat I will take.

• Unemployment is an unspent income story — the monopoly currency issuer (government) not issuing enough currency to satisfy the need to pay taxes and the desires to save in their currency.

• Machine automation is a productivity gain story, and has nothing to do with unemployment. The way we work can change, no one below median wage ever needs to eat a salary cut.

In fact useful AI, as opposed to mindless entertainment AI rubbish, permits firms to pay workers higher salaries. Sales drive wages and profits, not technology.

Why Justice is Central

Machine automation should allow us to free people up to get on with better things in life, like spend more time with their children, or help out (on a decently paid wage) with a local community permaculture garden and whatnot. Or if the children have any sense the parents can be fooled into thinking they can spend more time with their kids.

After a while, and after MMT awareness is more widespread, it is hard to see machine automation having any down-side for worker emancipation. You just have to be able to tell your boss to piss off if they get too demanding and bourgie. An MMT informed government always has the power to empower workers in this fashion, always, without question.

With freedom more or less taken care of, or as much freedom as anyone ever needs (we live in a society, so slackers should not be tolerated, everyone can contribute something) the real serious issue is Justice.

Democracy Now! ran a story on the AI regulation hearings. Like I wrote above, there is some good and some bad. Apart from the way mainstream media get the unemployment story all wrong, there is one other issue I want to highlight here today, which is moral freedom.

What people generally are not cognizant of is the work of people like Samuel Bowles , who point out when laws and regulations take away the need for moral decision making, things can get worse, not better. Bowles is not MMT aware, so says some stupid sh1t about taxation and whatnot, but in his area of expertise he is insightful and should be widely read by the policy makers and commentariat.

Here is my pithy observation posted to the Democracy Now! report:

Huh, turns out Philosophy is not really all that useless after all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g840ez9xbt0 (think your own thoughts, be authentic. Turn off sensationalist media crap and saccharin. Read a few books each week.)
      “The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice… By Its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of they neighbour… Set it then before thine eyes.” - Bahá’u’lláh (1857).

Further Reading

For more on AI from scientific and philosophy angles (not the same angles) see T4GU here .