Universal translators may be closer than we think.

[SlackerinDeNile]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymo ... tor-review

If we can somehow program an AI to comprehend any language for us and find suitable words and phrases to match that language, combine it with this device then you would basically have a translator like in Star Trek.

It would certainly be useful for communicating with any space aliens if they exist, providing they communicate verbally and using audio.

[Robovski]

If you can get an AI to comprehend any language and understand the meaning a great many millions will become unemployed as there will be no need for most sales or customer service agents.

[SlackerinDeNile]

If you can get an AI to comprehend any language and understand the meaning a great many millions will become unemployed as there will be no need for most sales or customer service agents.

Touche, another reason why I support the idea of universal basic income (and other services necessary to human survival.)

[Beastro]

Real life bad dubbing may be closer than we think.

FTFY

Touche, another reason why I support the idea of universal basic income (and other services necessary to human survival.)

Such a thing is not necessary to human survival. Work on the other hand, is.

You put in bandaid on the problem like universal basic income and all you're doing is allowing people to live in a world deprived of meaning that will rot them existentially.

(and no, I'm not going all Baku, but recognizing that a balance has to be stuck with automation or we're going to eventually get a real Butlerian Jihad or Mankind rotting away into nothingness).

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

In a capitalist society, income is necessary to survival.
Universal income does not make a world deprived of meaning. Have you actually read up on any of the places that employed universal basic income? Most people still went for a job because they wanted more money than the bare minimum for survival. The few that didn't tended to be college kids and new mothers.

There are plenty of ways to find meaning without giving people a "be productive or die" ultimatum.

[Beastro]

There are plenty of ways to find meaning without giving people a "be productive or die" ultimatum.

And not everyone is industrious or contentious enough to work for such reason or work because they want to.

This has nothing to do with capitalism but with human nature. You go down that route and it'll only spur people to demand more from the UBI in the same way that the War on Poverty is ever increasing in scope despite the fact that poverty today has almost nothing in relation to poverty a century or more ago.

The basic necessities of survival are not simply a driving force behind things like meaning and worth in life, they are THE driving force behind them. All of this is the problem modern man is facing where we've become so successful in the struggle to survive the bottoms fallen out beneath us and everything driving us to live tooth and nail will not prevent us from limiting ourselves.

I certain know that through the times of privation I've endured. As much as I can look back and recognize the good within them and the satisfaction of getting even simple things like a new toothbrush they are not something I'd willingly return to because of how hard things were then.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Did you not read my whole post?

Again, the Universal Basic Income experiment has been TRIED and it WORKED.

The problem facing modern man is that we CHOOSE to let people starve to death or die of presentable diseases or perish in the cold because we think that fighting for survival builds character.

[CharlesPhipps]

Cyberpunk is based around the realization there's a time when the poor become superfluous to the production of the rich.

In which case, realizing the purposes of technology and wealth is to make life easier has been reached is not a BAD thing is the societal shift that has to be made.

Ironically, we reached this point many times in the past but someone was doing the labor. Rome needed bread and circuses because everything was being done by slaves.

[Rasp]

I'm a big believer in the UBI especially when its applied in a truly universal way - not just for those who are unemployed.

because say $1000 a month may pay the rent and gets you the bare essentials but $1000 UBI + $1200 a month working a minimum wage job means you can buy more games or a bigger tv or find a better apartment so much extra cash you could pump into the economy. Some people will just work for MORE money.

All the benefits of a capitalist system just with less homelessness and disease. you turn those who would be homeless or destitute into consumers able to take advantage of the ever increasing efficiency of production. who really cares if they never seek to better themselves or find a purpose to exist? they've got homes and food and stability and most importantly - they're spending money and creating demand.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Also they aren't dying of exposure at age 43 in a Target parking lot. (That's my retirement plan.)