AW: [alicebot-aiethics] Greetings

[Christian Droßmann]

Robby Garner wrote:


> Hi All,

hi! Nice to have you here...I'm sure you will make a lot of fruitful
contributions!

> I don't believe bots will unemploy us. They'll find their own
> niche the way
> people do. Early Sci-Fi authors toyed with the idea that robots would give
> humanity more free time and reduce the amount of menial labor that we do.
> But in the reality of now, it takes people to build bots, the bots don't
> self-produce. That means even more jobs for human beings. And the
> human mind
> is incredible. Don't expect to see it duplicated soon. But
> imitation is the
> sincerest form of flattery.

I think this is only a matter of time...there will be the day when people
create the first self-repoducing bot...
I'd say that technically, virii and worms ARE self-reproducing robots
already...
I see a problem in people creating self-reproducing bots for destructive
purposes...so I'd say that even in an age in which robots reproduce
themselves people will have more than enough work with those who turn out to
be evil...

> The information age brings with it more work. In converse to what
> one would
> expect, the computer did not revolutionize the workplace, it
> merely created

a wise man once said "We invented computers to solve problems we wouldn't
have without them."

> more things to do, to support them, to sell them, maintain them, to use
> them, to learn how to do new things. So in terms of robots ever putting
> people out of work, it may be that some jobs will become obsolete, just as
> there are few blacksmiths around any more. The computer/robot/android will
> integrate into society to perform tasks that may or may not already be
> performed by human beings. So I think it is more accurate to say that the
> job market may change as it always has, but not because robots are putting
> people out of work. Rather the job market will change because people are
> doing new things, new jobs that may not exist yet. This is very little
> sollace to someone who is displaced and out of work. But the indispensible
> tool rules.

I wouldn't say that bots will unemploy us, but I tend to think that bots
will reduce the number of jobs needed...
Take a look at today's assembly lines...most of the work is done by fully
automatized machines now and very few people are needed to look after them
and to perform tasks robots are still unable to fulfill. And even though
there are people being employed in the companies building those machines I
would still say that the total number of jobs in that business has decreased
over time, at least if you look at the relationship between employees and
output...
I think this will also happen in other businesses...we will still need human
employees, but much less than we need now...

> Also, I think that if you say robots will unemploy us, that has bad
> connotations, and might scare people.  To me, a better sales pitch is that
> it makes jobs easier to perform, helps people, or makes hard jobs
> more easy
> to do.

I think that this is not a big issue as we are all working on a voluntary
basis... we don't really SELL something...

> Thanks for the invitation Rich! I know you open source guys probably frown
> on most of my current work, but I still have some open source
> projects of my
> own, and I applaud all of your efforts in the ALICE project. I
> just work in
> the same area, down the street.

I think we all appreciate what you achieved, be it for the open-source
community or in the general field of chatbot-development...


Christian