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All of Kevin Kohler's Comments + Replies

Will we ever run out of new jobs?
Kevin Kohler90

Yes, I think you're right. For context: I am writing on a general audience book so I need to close some inferential steps before getting to the more "juicy" stuff but I agree that on LW I could probably straight up post stuff like "A solar system commons trust is superior to the Outer Space Treaty and could help to fund a global UBI"

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2Seth Herd
Well put. LW does not need a gentle bridge from common current thought to more original ideas. We're already out in space.
Universal basic income isn’t always AGI-proof
Kevin Kohler10

Thanks for the feedback - appreciated! 

  1. I agree. I'm sort of on a learning curve on how to write for online audiences. Specifically switching from exploratory research to a short narrative style and this probably should have been a much shorter post. (in my defense I have cut a lot, incl. overview tables of all prominent UBI proposals, UBI trials, and some of the main discussion points around UBI impacts).
  2. The fact that financing UBI by taxing labor is not future-proof may be too obvious for LW - I am not sure it has arrived everywhere - some prominent
... (read more)
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2Seth Herd
I agree with 2. that UBI not being future proof is not obvious everywhere, and not even to everyone on LW. For a different audience (professional economists?) I think this careful setup would be worthwhile. I look forward to seeing your proposed solutions! Thanks for taking the feedback in the helpful spirit in which it was intended.
Space colonization: what can we definitely do and how do we know that?
Answer by Kevin Kohler130

Hi Ruby, since I've actually given this topic some thought I'm gonna delurk for once. The issue I have with FHI's space papers is that they basically pay no attention to questions of governance. Being able to reach things and being able to coordinate/control things are two very different things. Space is way too big for central control. Even in the Milky Way you'd probably need something in the ballpark of 100'000c for a central government to make sense. Consequently, we probably overestimate the degree to which space settlement i... (read more)

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5Ruby
That's interesting. I agree that given that consideration the term "colonization" is possibly misleading. I have been using it more in the sense of "you have human civilization over there" rather than "the colonies of the kingdom of Britain." I think I don't mind if the different "colonies" are autonomous.