On Power and Progress

As the wise philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel opined, "the only lesson from history is that we do not learn from history."

I said I was going to stop listening to AI CEOs cos they're just marketers sprouting whatever so their investors will keep pumping money. So I'd rather focus on what educated economists are saying about all of these brouhaha

So I got recommended this book, Power and Progress by two brilliant economists. So I figured to learn their theories about AI

I haven't even gotten to the chapter on Artificial Intelligence but I just keep seeing parallels from the different waves of tech advancement

From the Steam Engine to the Loom, to Mining, to Agriculture, To even Establishment of Trade Routes in both Suez Canal and Panama.

Funny enough, we did all of these in my history undergrad but when you don't have real experience to tie to, so you don't really know what to analyze or draw parallels unfolding events.

Cos basically none of the claims these folks are making are any different than what their ancestors promised. 

I got the recommendation from Prof. Gruber's video that we should read it if we want to understand what happens next with AI era 

And one thing I love about the book is the build up. There is no mention or connection anything about our modern era yet. And I'm in Chapter 6 (out of 11 chapters)

It's still yapping about history. Just giving you full known history lesson. Its your brain that'll start telling you, 'oh my freaking God. Is this deja vu? 😳😳'

 You can't help but draw parallels with what you're seeing around you.

These CEOS are bullshitting everyone. Ain't no damn AI saving you time or saving everyone more time or granting prosperity in the long scheme of things. No, now you work like a horse for more hours and for less pay.

Mind you previously, a bug that you'd have claimed you're working on for two weeks? Now, if it's over 48 hours, better be worried about your competency. The work never ends. It just doesn't.

And who makes the money? Well, not the average person toiling away, that's for sure.

Meta had introduced this policy of tracking employees key strokes. Like tracking how much you're typing on your keyboard to enforce strictness. My friend/roommate told me something similar is already enforced in her husband's office. You give a report of exactly what you did hourly.

I'm failing to see the difference between that and this highlighted paragraph.

Let's not even delve (plus screw AI and tainting this word for me) into the layoffs that have persisted over the years.

I think it's one of the previous screenshots where it said loom experts were sacked cos of automation, and they now had to take unskilled labour jobs for less pay.

Ring any bells. Sure does to me.

You have senior engineers applying for junior level roles cos the jobs have been eliminated. The irony though is these companies are now spending money on tokens equivalent to their workers salaries and the LLMs be making mistakes still.

Back to Zuck, if meta continues this, other companies will soon start adopting the policy of surveillance for their employees. My friend and roommate told him her spouse are already clocking in their work progress every hour.

Name of the book is Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson