Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access

Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by quasque on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @08:16PM (#7707942)

Sometimes I yearn for a benevolent AI to rise up and impose a communist state upon the world, employing robots to free humanity from its labours.

This yearning mostly comes when I'm reminded that there are a small number of people who've not only managed to accumulate such an obscene amount of wealth that the title "billionaire" can be bestowed upon them, but that they use that wealth for predominantly selfish outcomes.

And it's only going to get worse. When the enduring puzzle of longevity is finally cracked and death can be reliably cheated, it's not going to be those living in abject poverty, or the dogged grafters, or even the skilled professionals who benefit. No, it'll be that small group of rich and powerful who'll use it to further promote this monumental inequality of wealth.

It's not the triviality of some beach access that is really the issue, it's just a distraction. It's this vile aristocracy of gold and greed that is the enduring problem, the manifestation of which is the source of countless suffering amongst humanity.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by Jochim on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @08:43PM (#7708037)

But if you work 70 hours a week for the rest of your life you to might attain this status my friend! Think of all the riches and power you'd have for yourself! And because people are taught that massive amounts of wealth concentrated into single entities is a noble thing to strive for you will be respected by all!

Surely the personal happiness of a few hundred human beings who worked hard and got lucky (or were born to someone who worked hard and got lucky) weighs more than the hunger of millions in the third world. I mean if they were really that hungry they would get a job and feed their family, right my friend?

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by brc on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @08:22PM (#7707965)

Communism? Really? Sorry, no thanks. I'm fine without being murdered by my own government for having unclean thoughts. Long live the individual.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by quasque on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @08:25PM (#7707973)

But if it was run by a benevolent robot intelligence rather than humans, it would probably work out really well.

Indeed I think it would be about as close to utopian as we're ever going to get.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by learc83 on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @08:42PM (#7708034)

Yeah, but who get's to decide what's "benevolent" in the first place?

One man's benevolent ruler is another's tyrannical despot.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by quasque on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @09:17PM (#7708128)

That's a very interesting point. Perhaps, to ensure that a range of ethical frameworks have been taken into consideration (each with their varying ideas of what benevolence really means) a more equitable situation would be a plurality of utopias each with its own ruling AI? And free movement of individual humans to whichever aligns best to their own personal code of ethics.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by brc on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @11:43PM (#7708506)

Or, you could try a liberal democracy with a strong constitution and separation of powers, based on common law and strong rights of individuals.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by quasque on Wednesday May 07, 2014 @12:58AM (#7708673)

If such a system was incorruptible, constructed such that it would be impossible for a small group of individuals to hoard the majority of the global wealth, and guaranteed a pleasant and equitable standard of living for all - then it might work.

Unfortunately, the current implementations of this ideal fall far short.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by justinreeves on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @10:22PM (#7708303)

Communism == Execution for Thought Crime, apparently.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by brc on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @11:57PM (#7708539)

Yes, this point is not in dispute. A small sample : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/gulags-reveal-awf...

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by justinreeves on Friday May 09, 2014 @06:03PM (#7723483)

It's most certainly in dispute. I'm disputing it right now.

You seem to think that communism is the same thing as "communism under Stalin", and that's incorrect.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by stephencanon on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @10:00PM (#7708231)

It's a pretty safe bet that an AI dictatorship would employ humanity to spare the robots from their labors.

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Re:Silicon Valley Billionaire Battles Surfers Over Beach Access by quasque on Wednesday May 07, 2014 @01:06AM (#7708699)

I suppose it depends on the personality of the AI, and how it was programmed or evolved. Maybe it, and its robots, would be highly motivated by such work?

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