[DemonRaven]

Oh we have Basic income...it's called Minimum Wage...a "standard" given to those willing or able to work and unfortunately, it is actually at of below poverty level in that one couldn't possibly pay bills and survive on Minimum Wage alone. There is talk of raising it to a more respectable level but we'll see.

For the rest of the "socialism" to which I alluded. It is not right, to my way of thinking, to take a portion of my hard earned money and give it to someone who won't work. There should be no "entitlements". Those who'd rather sit on their porches and keep taking should be required to perform work, whether in the parks, libraries, day cares, roadsides, school yards, etc. In other words, there is and never has been such thing as a Free Lunch. Someone, somewhere is paying for it.

There are those who are actually in need of assistance, disabled, elderly, very low income families with dependents, etc. Those who expect entitlements without exchange of labor or services is making things bad for the rest of those trying to get by.

So when all kinds of people find themselves unemployable in the future via robots you would prefer they starve? Sorry but if you are going to let business's buy robots to replace workers that are unable to train for more higher skilled work  then they deserve some kind of compensation. To not provide some kind of monetary support is asking for big trouble. People tend to get testy when going hungry. Wars get fought over resources.

[DemonRaven]

All to often i see people jumping the gun on things and not thinking of all the possible consequences. There is always a down side to things. Nothing is totally good or totally bad. To seek solutions for the down side is not only reasonable but necessary. Yes AI and Robots can do a lot of good. But they can also do a lot of bad if you allow business's natural greed to dictate economics.

[Art]

Think of Ford's assembly line as sort of a precursor to robotics. A mechanized way of increasing production and it allowed for a better vehicle.
Robots have already been in our lives for years and doing tasks that are unsafe and tedious for humans. With robots, there are always other areas in which humans will be needed. Programming, assembly, maintenance oversight, quality, etc. Yes, it might be entirely possible that some of these tasks could be performed by robots as well.
It is also the desire of many robotics companies to create helpmates for the elderly, infirmed, lonely, as well as domestic and industrial cleaning and assistance, teachers, mentors for kids, medical aids and clinicians...and so on.
There will always be people in need of assistance but the robots will also benefit mankind and create new jobs for their human counterparts.

80% of people hate their jobs yet they do them every day. Would they want a robot to do their job? Would they desire to be unemployed? Most likely not. What's the answer?

Some say candlemakers were put out of work when electricity and the incandescent bulb was invented yet we still have candles. Point is, with automation, some jobs get replaced and some new jobs get created. People are still needed in the equation and overall scheme of things...for now. Perhaps in 50 years < thanks Don>, things will be on a different plane of existence. A lot of the book / publisher market has been replaced by the ebook. Kodak the inventors of the digital camera didn't keep up and filed for bankruptcy for $1 billion. Other startup digital camera companies made it big. Big oil is faltering due to solar, wind and other alternate energy sources. A lot of these employ robots. Looking at the big picture, does it really matter? Not for me to say.
 

[ivan.moony]

Imagine a free site where an AGI instance would be placed. People could visit the site and ask questions. Some of the questions would be: how can I earn a money? Even the poorest ones without computers could go to the public library and interface the AGI over the web.

So what do you think, for how long would people get a positive answer?

For 5 years? For 10 years? Or maybe forever?

[DemonRaven]

Think of Ford's assembly line as sort of a precursor to robotics. A mechanized way of increasing production and it allowed for a better vehicle.
Robots have already been in our lives for years and doing tasks that are unsafe and tedious for humans. With robots, there are always other areas in which humans will be needed. Programming, assembly, maintenance oversight, quality, etc. Yes, it might be entirely possible that some of these tasks could be performed by robots as well.
It is also the desire of many robotics companies to create helpmates for the elderly, infirmed, lonely, as well as domestic and industrial cleaning and assistance, teachers, mentors for kids, medical aids and clinicians...and so on.
There will always be people in need of assistance but the robots will also benefit mankind and create new jobs for their human counterparts.

80% of people hate their jobs yet they do them every day. Would they want a robot to do their job? Would they desire to be unemployed? Most likely not. What's the answer?

Some say candlemakers were put out of work when electricity and the incandescent bulb was invented yet we still have candles. Point is, with automation, some jobs get replaced and some new jobs get created. People are still needed in the equation and overall scheme of things...for now. Perhaps in 50 years < thanks Don>, things will be on a different plane of existence. A lot of the book / publisher market has been replaced by the ebook. Kodak the inventors of the digital camera didn't keep up and filed for bankruptcy for $1 billion. Other startup digital camera companies made it big. Big oil is faltering due to solar, wind and other alternate energy sources. A lot of these employ robots. Looking at the big picture, does it really matter? Not for me to say.
 

I am familiar with the new jobs will be created and we won't lose any in the process. But that is not the reality. I looked into what happened after the industrial revolution. A lot of jobs were lost and unemployment rose close to ten percent for almost 99 years. That is a lot of lost jobs. Also everything has a limit. Eventually and probably faster then 50 years all the jobs will be replaceable. What then? If nothing else health wise it is not good for humans to be too lazy. 100 years ago there was not the kind of overweight problems that plague many in western countries today.  There is such a thing as too much of a "good" thing.
Those potential problems should be addressed now before that many jobs get taken. The us government did their own research into the amount of jobs and kind of jobs taken. This was the result

Drawing on government employment data and myriad interviews with ... that new automation will cause a net loss of only 9.1 million U.S. jobs by 2025.

That is a lot of jobs.
Nothing is hurt by finding solutions now. No one is getting hurt by suggesting solutions either.

[ivan.moony]

Try to think of how the programming industry would be changed by true AI. Regular programmers would be extinct. They would turn into commanders. Those with the most creative commands would be the most successful program creators.

We can extrapolate this to any industry. Everyone would turn from industry workers into commanders. And those with the best commands would rock the industry world. A kind of utopic thought, but that would be it. We would just need the basic income for all people, plus some extras for those who want to be creative in this wonderful utopic world.

But no, we all have to work hard because someone will abuse the magic invent. Maybe we should put a big sign above this planet: "Welcome to the planet Earth where we all work stupid jobs because we are afraid of each other!"   

[Art]

Don't forget overpopulation of the planet is also adding to the numbers in that for every 1 person that dies, 2-1/3 persons are born. (no jokes about the 1/3 person please...it's a numerical average).
Think about how many jobs are now here that weren't thought of 30 years ago, especially in the field of computers, technology, robotics, Internet, consulting, travel, etc.

Actually, the industrial revolution helped spur America's growth. It created thousands of new jobs, increased production and did away with a lot of the hand made / manual tasks that couldn't keep up with demand.

So basically, Industrialization in America expanded transportation, harnessed electricity and improved industrial processes for factories, textiles and utilities.

Eli Whitney, Elias Howe, Cyrus McCormick, John Deere, Samuel Morse, James Watt, Thomas Edison and more were all part of this era that helped shape America and created countless new jobs.

A lot of jobs were lost? Where exactly?

To quote from Wikipedia, "The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history..."