If I’m not tasked with solving the problems then is there anything I can do for that is productive? Discussing it at all seems like unproductive rubbernecking.

Sir, this is an internet forum. Why are you here if you have problems to resolve?

account created 6hrs ago, -8 karma

Totally agree; op is No True Scotsman.

Why is anyone else expected to be productive in their speculation?

Because for every minute you don't spend on yourself means someone else has to pick up the slack; you are not an island.

Thermodynamics is like that.

And the rest of us would rather deal with our own lives than your preference to sit about reflecting

That's why I am all about robots doing the work; at least up to filling stores with textiles, food, building materials, and leaving everyone's "day job" to staying out the way of others who just want to experience consciousness and die.

Have worked among the people for 30ish years; started on farms, got degrees in EE/CE, worked in hardware/software; we are going in circles so drop the rhetorical pretense.

It's western vanity fueled by old allegory of religion about forever life and prosperity; my decades of experience studying applied physics and watching software engineers circumlocutions but now using fancy new JS lib! are little more than a scratched record jumping backwards to the previous groove

Huh? I'm not at work, nobody is picking up my slack. If you want to deal with your own life, fine, but this is an Internet forum - the only reason it exists is to chat about whatever.

Right because here on a hacker news thread we are resolving the problem and not rubber necking

And would you say what you are doing is productive?