lisplist

Hypothetically speaking - if the singularity is indeed within the next few decades, why bother saving any money at all and instead live as lavishly as possible?

Practical reasons to save:

a) What if it isn't? i) Maybe ASI takes a lot longer or the notion of exponential intelligence gains actually doesn't happen ii) Perhaps we wipe ourselves out via climate change/nuclear war/etc (in which case money still won't matter much)

b) Money might still matter in a post-scarcity economy i) Some resources will still be scarce - how do we allocate them?

c) Saving money is wise regardless of what happens i) People still saved during the cold war when nuclear war destruction seemed imminent

Arguments for lavish living a) A post ASI world would likely look radically different. Hopefully in a good way, but still different. Might as well experience the world as it is now. i) If life becomes much worse, then either we will be dead, which means money doesn't matter, or life is terrible, in which case we might wish we'd enjoyed the good years we had. ii) If life becomes much better, then our savings probably don't matter so much as we've figured out the scarcity problem.

b) Climate change might (and already has) result in the radical transformation of ecosystems, causing many experiences to possibly not exist in the future. i) Ideally ASI would help resolve climate change? Or at least greatly mitigate it.

I, myself, am a pretty frugal person. I pay debts as quickly as I can, save as much as I can for retirement, and spend as little as possible. I think ultimately my 401k savings might useless by the time I'm old, but I do it anyways. My actions certainly conflict with the premise of my question.

I have no clue if I should even believe in the concept of the singularity. Perhaps, in a lot of ways, it is like a religion. We've replaced the second coming of Christ with the arrival of AI.

I think, ultimately, the sanest take is to assume nothing and continue to be frugal even if it's just giving myself the illusion of control over my own life into the future.

I know this is a question that has been asked and pondered a thousand times over, but it’s still something I can’t wrap my head around. If our ability to think becomes useless (in the economic sense at least), then how does an economy even function if the price of knowledge and mental labor basically becomes free?

If everyone switches to a physical job then the value of those jobs plummet as well, especially as robotics get better, we get better training via AI, etc.

UBI is proposed as a solution, but our resources are still scarce, so how would you even decide allocation if everyone has the same amount of cash?

Hi all,

I’ve got a BS in Computer Science and have been considering pursuing a Master’s degree part-time with a focus on ML/AI.

I know the common narrative is that a Master’s in CS really isn’t worth it if you’re just looking for a pay raise. However machine learning is an area I’m interested in but lack the requisite background. I just really worry the degree will mostly be worthless by the time I graduate considering the rate at which AI is advancing.

The degree would mostly be for personal knowledge/fulfillment, but I don’t want to bother with it if we’re all going to be unemployable in a few years anyways. Another alternative I’m considering is learning HVAC repair as a fallback career.

What are your thoughts?

Hi all,

Currently working on a presentation about backtesting investment ideas and thought it would be funny to do it through the lens of automating really bad investment ideas. So what are your worst ideas?

Some examples:

- short a stock every time it reaches 52 week highs without using a stop loss - guaranteed bankruptcy

- auto-recreate Cathy Wood's ARKK portfolio

- etc

Note the strategies must be automatable. You can't just say "buy X stock because it sucks" because that doesn't say when to buy, how often to buy, etc.