In this Express episode Jon and Ted answer a listener question about the future of citizenship, and wonder how it will be challenged and whether it’s even necessary at all. We respond to another question asking for a beginner’s reading list. We follow up on our discussion with Calum Chace and talk through Jon’s skepticism of technological unemployment problems. How long will the era of technological unemployment last? Long enough to matter or is it another blip on the road to superintelligence? Will robot housekeepers be replaced all at once or piecemeal as things like Roombas get better? Is it practical to think most people will become digital non-consumers or are people driven to acquire status to the point that an endless pyramid of positional goods can keep capitalism going forever? How about the meaning of an infinite movie?
In the podcast, Jon gives his Beginners and Hardcore reading lists. Here they are:
Beginners
- Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable
- Calum Chace, Surviving AI; The Economic Singularity
- Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near
Hardcore
- Essays:
- Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence
- Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age
- Sonia Arrison, 100+
- David Pearce, The Hedonistic Imperative
- David Brin, The Transparent Society
Relevant Links
- RTF Episode 073: Can Capitalism Survive an “Economic Singularity?” with Calum Chace
- RTF Episode 011: Review of McAfee and Brynjolfsson’s SECOND MACHINE AGE
- RTF Episode 047: David Pearce on “What is the Future of Suffering?”
- Japanese Eldercare Robots