Elon Musk says we need universal basic income because 'in the future, physical work will be a choice'

Elon Musk says we need universal basic income because 'in the future, physical work will be a choice'

Elon Musk is working on a "friendly" robot that can perform "dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks" — and take jobs away from humans.

www.businessinsider.com

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is stepping behind the universal basic income movement because of the potential rise of robots — in fact, he's working on one himself.

During a Thursday presentation on artificial intelligence (AI) hosted by Tesla, Musk said he is working on creating a "Tesla Bot," or a robot that would do "dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks" so humans don't have to. But Musk recognized that the creation of this robot might take the place of jobs that people are currently getting paid for, which is why he said a guaranteed income will likely be necessary in the future.

"Essentially, in the future, physical work will be a choice," Musk said during the presentation. "This is why I think long term there will need to be a universal basic income," he added.

Musk said that the robot will be "friendly," standing at a height of 5'8'' and reaching speeds up to five miles per hour. But if its creation goes to plan, it will take many people's jobs.

While Musk's robot has not yet taken over, businesses across the country have turned to automation rather than paying humans for work. For example, Insider previously reported that restaurants struggling to hire workers for months, they have turned to QR codes where diners can view menus, rather than having a waiter bring them one.

In addition, Cracker Barrel rolled out a mobile app that lets customers pay for meals; McDonald's started testing automated drive-thru ordering at 10 Chicago locations; and Dave & Buster's plans to expand its contactless ordering, effectively getting rid of many restaurant jobs humans once did.

If this trend continues, it's likely that universal basic income will become a larger part of the conversation. Some cities have already started testing out pilot universal basic income programs for targeted groups of residents, and California recently launched the nation's largest statewide universal basic income program prioritized for pregnant people and those aging out of the foster system.

And after the pandemic spurred Congress to approve three stimulus checks for Americans, some Democrats called to continue those checks well beyond the end of the pandemic, and in late March, amid infrastructure negotiations, 21 Democratic senators urged President Joe Biden in a letter to include recurring direct payments in his infrastructure plan, saying that when checks ran out after the CARES Act, poverty rose.

Even with the concern that rising automation will take people's jobs, though, economics writer Noah Smith wrote in a June 13 blog post that it could optimize job growth given that people who were taking orders and busing tables could develop more valuable skills.

 

[m1ddl3m4rch]

In the context of The Next Generation (OG star trek is cheesy, stupid, and makes no sense most of the time):

I've been watching the original series for the first time after growing up on TNG, DS9 and VOY. They wrote the Enterprise like it a battleship. They have to contact the phaser and torpedo rooms ... instead of the tactical officer orchestrating everything from the bridge console, because machines load the torpedoes and the phaser arrays are automated and controlled by computer.

Coming in from the 90s era, it was a noticeable difference from telling the computer to do everything. I noticed that full computer control wasn't really part of Trek until The Search for Spock, where it's a plot point that Enterprise has been refit for automation and can be run solely by bridge crew. From then on, one person could run the entire ship by just telling the computer to do it.

It's a mostly realistic view of the future, because almost all human conflict boils down to fighting over resources. But even in the show, replicators didn't exist until the 2300s. We've got a lot of world wars to fight in the next 300 years.

Doing my semi-annual DS9 watchthrough again, so I recently watched the Past Tense two-parter. Sisko tells Bashir that impoverished 'sanctuary cities' were in every major city by the 2020s and led to the Bell Riots. It's funny watching it having actually entered the 2020s, especially since the episode is set in San Francisco's sanctuary, and the dystopian poverty city descended into anarchy is the plot of the episode. It'll be an interesting three centuries.

 

[TenMilesWide]

I've been watching the original series for the first time after growing up on TNG, DS9 and VOY. They wrote the Enterprise like it a battleship. They have to contact the phaser and torpedo rooms ... instead of the tactical officer orchestrating everything from the bridge console, because machines load the torpedoes and the phaser arrays are automated and controlled by computer.

Coming in from the 90s era, it was a noticeable difference from telling the computer to do everything. I noticed that full computer control wasn't really part of Trek until The Search for Spock, where it's a plot point that Enterprise has been refit for automation and can be run solely by bridge crew. From then on, one person could run the entire ship by just telling the computer to do it.

Doing my semi-annual DS9 watchthrough again, so I recently watched the Past Tense two-parter. Sisko tells Bashir that impoverished 'sanctuary cities' were in every major city by the 2020s and led to the Bell Riots. It's funny watching it having actually entered the 2020s, especially since the episode is set in San Francisco's sanctuary, and the dystopian poverty city descended into anarchy is the plot of the episode. It'll be an interesting three centuries.

We never did get those eugenics wars in the 90s. I was promised supermen carving up the world through sheer genetic might, where are they?

 

[Clint Torez]

Does this mean his Cobalt miners in South Africa can be free?

 

[Tasty Tatty]

Can someone explain Star Trek to me? I'm not some kind of old man.

In the context of The Next Generation (OG star trek is cheesy, stupid, and makes no sense most of the time):

Antimatter technology makes energy functionally infinite. Replicator technology eliminates scarcity by converting energy (which is infinite) into matter. Anyone can have anything, at any time, for free. And I don't mean socialist "free", I mean for real free. As such, conflict on earth has all but ceased.

Lucky for us, warp drive lets us seek out new life and new civilizations who haven't discovered the art of peace, so there's still plenty of blowing shit up we can do in space to alleviate our collective boredom. In the name of science, of course.

It's a mostly realistic view of the future, because almost all human conflict boils down to fighting over resources. But even in the show, replicators didn't exist until the 2300s. We've got a lot of world wars to fight in the next 300 years.

Star Trek society has also evolved (at least on earth and among humans) in a way in which everybody can do whatever they want without fear of starving because your business wasn't successful. I'm sure that there are new ways to determinate whether a restaurant is good or not, but with money gone, you can just "pursue your dreams".

Of course, most normie fans watch this and assume life is easy when it's never been implied that. Many starfleet officers always talk about the sacrifices they've made in order to have a career. Picard eventually resented to have never married and been a father.

Many people watch Star Trek and assume life in that time is perfect, but it's not. Not only there are new dangers, but people still struggle with living and their own choices. I'm sure the average libtard who is miserable in the 21st Century, will be equally miserable in the 24th one and no amount of robots and technology will change that.

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

Star Trek society has also evolved (at least on earth and among humans) in a way in which everybody can do whatever they want without fear of starving because your business wasn't successful. I'm sure that there are new ways to determinate whether a restaurant is good or not, but with money gone, you can just "pursue your dreams".

Of course, most normie fans watch this and assume life is easy when it's never been implied that. Many starfleet officers always talk about the sacrifices they've made in order to have a career. Picard eventually resented to have never married and been a father.

Many people watch Star Trek and assume life in that time is perfect, but it's not. Not only there are new dangers, but people still struggle with living and their own choices. I'm sure the average libtard who is miserable in the 21st Century, will be equally miserable in the 24th one and no amount of robots and technology will change that.

24th century earth is generally portrayed as Utopian, and for good measure. There are legitimately no problems left. Between replicators and holodecks, earth is essentially heaven. They don't even experience headaches any more because medical science has cured discomfort.

But being in Starfleet means being in constant danger, as bad as or worse than any other military organization in history. It's not just going from planet to planet going "WOW heckin final frontier so exciting".

Everyone thinks they'd be a bridge officer in that universe, but in reality they'd be sitting in their holosuite getting their dick sucked 24 hours a day by a holo-hottie while a replicator generates an infinite amount of cheese whiz for them to guzzle down forever. They just don't show that aspect of a perfect society in the show because it's gross and doesn't really add to the aesthetic.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I have a better idea, ditch political decisions to AI.

 

[Chan the Wizard]

Well, if a literal autistic is suggesting it must be a good idea.

 

[Cyclonus]

If we lose employment then hobbies will become the new way to measure status. It already happened with sports.

 

[Absurdist Laughter]

I don't think he is necessarily wrong just thinking too far forward for the rest of the world. AI and Bots are taking over a lot of jobs, designing homes (architects), manufacturing homes, Fast food, etc. I don't think this trend will reverse, barring some sort of cataclysmic event, anytime soon. The meme of "learn to code" would mean nothing when everyone knows IT and then are fighting for a position in a slowly saturating market. UBI theoretically could be something that needs to be talked about, however, I think I'll be dead and buried by then.

 

[LurkTrawl]

Elon, buddy, money is in no small part not just a way to measure value from a product, but value from labor. If you're not making/selling a product, and you're not laboring in some way, then you're not worth shit. Which means your value isn't worth money as a person.

Hasn't Musk ever read about the Mouse Utopia experiment?

I can't remember where or the specifics of it, but at one point I remember reading @Secret Asshole explaining why that study is fucking retarded.

 

[TowinKarz]

UBI fundamentally cannot work....

Once everyone (or close enough to it) stops working, where's the money come from?

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Can someone explain Star Trek to me? I'm not some kind of old man.

Read my criticism on Federation economics. So-called "post scarcity" is really rapid, careless colonization.

24th century earth is generally portrayed as Utopian, and for good measure. There are legitimately no problems left. Between replicators and holodecks, earth is essentially heaven. They don't even experience headaches any more because medical science has cured discomfort.

But being in Starfleet means being in constant danger, as bad as or worse than any other military organization in history. It's not just going from planet to planet going "WOW heckin final frontier so exciting".

Everyone thinks they'd be a bridge officer in that universe, but in reality they'd be sitting in their holosuite getting their dick sucked 24 hours a day by a holo-hottie while a replicator generates an infinite amount of cheese whiz for them to guzzle down forever. They just don't show that aspect of a perfect society in the show because it's gross and doesn't really add to the aesthetic.

And boy oh boy did Sisko have a lot to say about people who live in paradise. People who live in paradise have no understanding of reality and IMO, are the ultimate cause of why Federation politics are so nonsensical.

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Where can I send Elon my paypal acc?

 

[Bum Driller]

I personally am not that convinced that there will be job scarcity, at least not on the scale we're talking about, in the near future. True AI -technology is still decades, if not centuries away, and until we can create true AI's on industrial scale, there will be lots of jobs for humans to do. True, many jobs we do nowadays will cease due to the progress in technology, but other jobs will arise to take their place. I could imagine that the type of people who nowadays fix relatively simple machines like cars or elevators will in the future fix robots and self-driving cars, for example.

 

[Marshal Mannerheim]

AI will not get rid of manual labour, it'll get rid of white-collar jobs. This is because it's a lot easier to automate something like translation or accountancy than moving a box around.

So no, you won't spend your life on UBI having fun - you'll spend your life working in an Amazon warehouse for a barely livable wage, then going back to your pod and listening to Ibram Kendi talk about "racial justice" while eating a BugBar™ and trying not to think about the very real economic injustice, lest you get sent to a Love and Understanding Centre™ for thought crime.

 

[LurkTrawl]

I personally am not that convinced that there will be job scarcity, at least not on the scale we're talking about, in the near future. True AI -technology is still decades, if not centuries away, and until we can create true AI's on industrial scale, there will be lots of jobs for humans to do. True, many jobs we do nowadays will cease due to the progress in technology, but other jobs will arise to take their place. I could imagine that the type of people who nowadays fix relatively simple machines like cars or elevators will in the future fix robots and self-driving cars, for example.

The big problem is that this utopian future supposes that automated workers being overseen by human hands aren't going to usually make fuckups. We'll see when we get there, I suppose, but ultimately the folly of believing that a being driven by a computer is somehow going to make less mistakes than a group of humans is going to lead to a whole lot of misery.

 

[Billy Beer]

None (very few) of us having to work ever again became a possibility two decades ago. The 'work' we do now is to supply people with goods that they don't need.

We have water, we have power, we have a home with heating, what more do we need? (yes people need to work to make these work, this is the very few) Oh that's right, useless fucking shite to keep the economy ticking over and 100 different variants of the same tech.

No i don't want just one version of phone, but do samsung really need to release 20 different phones that only differ in a very minute way?

When it boils down to it, we could have a 'national service' style of working, where you work between the ages of (for talks sake) 25 - 35, keeping things ticking over, supplying power and food etc, then at 35 you move on to more society assistance. Where you work minimal hours, maybe one day a week, to clean graffiti, clean the streets, fix the roads.

As you get older you do less and less manual work and more intellectual work to help society. You basically plant trees, knowing you'll never sit in their shade.

Tl;DR fuck musk

 

[Lina Colorado]

Whatever happens, i'm not merging with AI, Musk. AI and Mind-uploading is utter sci-fi bullshit and useless.
Escape the matrix.

 

[Product Placement]

Depending on how far automation goes, something like this may need to be put in place. But a world full of automation sounds like hell.

 

[Shiversblood]

Abolish money and make everything free. That would solve this problem.