JonahSinick comments on Norbert Wiener on automation and unemployment - Less Wrong

6 Post author: JonahSinick 27 July 2013 06:02PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (17)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: JonahSinick 05 September 2013 10:01:34PM 0 points [-]

I was reading Wiener's own writings, here and here

Thanks.

Wiener's own writings do not seem to give such an impression of urgency, and I note that he didn't do anything beyond contacting a few union leaders, such as lobbying directly to politicians. Here's how he described his contact with union leaders:

Based on your quotation, I agree. I was reporting on what I read, and didn't deep dive the situation, because I came to the conclusion that the case of Wiener and automation doesn't have high relevance.

Capable of any job that a human of average intelligence could perform. I thought that's pretty clear from "However, taking the second revolution as accomplished, the average human being of mediocre attainments or less has nothing to sell that it is worth anyone’s money to buy."

We have a difference of interpretation. I thought he wasn't talking about AGI because AGI could probably replace high intelligence people too, and he suggests that high intelligence people wouldn't be replaced.

It seems clear, at least in his later writings (1957, second link above), that he really was thinking of AGI, not just robotics:

I think that he was writing about narrow AI in his earlier writings, and AGI in his later writings.