mabramo
I hate when people say that during a discussion or argument.
Don't prevent companies from getting rid of their human workforce - redistribute wages "paid" to robots to humans.
In preparation for the move to a totally AI driven customer interface (which WILL happen, barring any large scale disaster), legislators needs to implement some solution to keep currency flowing to the people.
If everything except highly skilled professions are automated, there will be a hell of a lot unemployment. Off the top of my head, one potential solution I've heard is that companies should pay wages to robots and those wages will be paid as tax to the government who would redistribute the wealth as universal basic income.
We're surely decades or more from near total automation, but it's worth thinking about as a serious matter as we are living in the robot revolution.
There are plenty of individuals who work multiple jobs, still get only 30-some hours, and still collect public assistance. Seems like a needless clause.
Treating people with respect without expecting anything in return gets you far.
None of my goals have ANYTHING to do with my career and most of them have EVERYTHING to do with motorcycles and offroad racing.
Software engineering funds my (very amateur) racing "career".
Loving your job such that you want to wake up every day and commit yourself to it is a fantasy for almost everyone and a reality for the few. Some people even on my team love what we do and think it's the coolest shit. For me, I'm happy here because it allows me the freedom to do the things in my life that are actually important to me.
Rather, Bandcamp should start a streaming service. I've had a payment model in my pocket for years that I think would work really well for them.
In terms of AI, I don't /think/ there's anything groundbreaking here. Correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't follow AI research, but this technology is nothing we haven't already seen. I believe the development of AI for Dota is a publicity move to get people excited about what AI could be for humanity. This might be the way to introduce AI to non-technologists and get people excited about it.
Tom Fountainhead (ex-Obscura) recently published a cover of a track off Akroasis. Fretless guitar tapping everywhere
Granted, the Ironbound could be a totally different city than the rest of Newark.
The express subways are spaced out a little more, closer to 8 or 10 minutes, depending on the line.
However, OP's conclusion was "therefore UBI is a bad idea" and never considered what society could be like if we all collected UBI and maintained similar unemployment we (in the US) have today.
My vision is that we collect UBI and have mandatory employment for X years and Y% allowed "time off / sabbatical / whatever" during which you are granted UBI. During the days/weeks/months you exceed the allowed time off, you are not granted UBI.
Of course, the policy needs to be far more nuanced with regard to people who are unable to work, unable to find work, attempting to help people find work in their field of expertise, etc.
I've never spoken to anyone about this concept at length, so I'd love to hear HN's thoughts.
I love food, but I don't care to make it. I used to make turkey or krakowska (Polish meat) sandwiches for lunch the next day, but I don't care enough about those things to go to the deli every week or two.
Once or twice a week I'll get lunch at a Halal truck or the deli next to my office, but this is much more expensive than just soylent. Bought lunch turns into my "big meal" and I end up having very little for dinner.
For dinner, I'll make some food but it's never elaborate. Very often, my dinners are peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes I'll make some ramen and throw an egg in there. I'm also really into gourmet burgers so I go out a couple times a month for one.
I suppose the takeaway is that my lifestyle and eating habits didn't change for Soylent. It was just a better solution for me than what I was already doing. I prefer to have a cheap eating routine and Soylent helps prevent me from eating garbage food with basically zero effort. Not to mention that I'm borderline "chocoholic" who cut out buying sweets and the cacao flavor soylent really hits the spot.
Through some dumb luck (and desire to procrastinate a bit), I opened HN and, subsequently, the AWS status page and actually read the US-EAST-1 notification.
HN saves the day.
Services that you have mentioned are voluntary. You can control which organizations have access to your data by purchasing or not purchasing certain products, though one can't be sure who within the company is actually looking at your data or who they are selling information to.
In the future, will there be any consumer technology services that do not collect and store your information? Possibly not. If enough people give up their own privacy in favor of convenience, the free market will provide. However, it will still remain a decision of the individual whether or not to utilize those services - despite there potentially not being more private alternatives.
Republicans and the current administration want to be able to be able to monitor individuals unwarranted, unchecked, and with legality. (Yes, I know the NSA exists) The difference here is that individuals don't have a decision in the matter.
There are two ways that I can think of to stop both of the above situations:
1. Implement federal policy that disallows companies from collecting and storing customer data except that which is explicitly provided by the customer.
2. Develop methods that make it financially beneficial for politicians to protect the privacy of those they are meant to represent.
In another case, a customer could actually throw garbage in the car and then report the car dirty - causing the previous customer to be fined. The only safety net against this I know is to record video inside the car while a customer is present.
Then there's this organization that ran out of funding, but contacting one of the former team members may help you. [2]
There is development of software that doesn't directly affect the environment but rather helps dictate what work should be done to improve/conserve conditions. This book seems to address this topic. [3]
Here are some other random related things. [4] [5]
Unfortunately, it seems like software engineers are mostly used to develop management software. Modeling software is closer to the type of action I suspect you are interested in. It is needed, though I doubt the software engineers are helping analyze data and building solutions based on that research. I could be very wrong.
EDIT: I should clarify. A SE COULD analyze the data, but in the context of a paid full-time position I doubt your employer would want you to spend your time doing that.
If you find any information regarding "environmental [activism/conservation] with software", or something like that, please let us know.
DISCLAIMER: I don't know what I'm doing ;)
[1] http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/ndc...
[3] http://www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-modelling-and...
[4] http://www.conservation.org/NewsRoom/pressreleases/Pages/sof...