Politics

AIs and robots are quickly becoming powerful Humanity is currently creating “artificial intelligences.” The power and intelligence of these new non-biological agents is improving exponentially, and exponential growth implies rapid, unpredictable change. A huge factor underlying the uncertainty around how rapidly AIs will advance is how quickly AIs will become proficient at making themselves more intelligent. AIs are beginning to “pick themselves up by their bootstraps” and rewrite their own code to learn faster and think more effectively:...

According to the United States Federal Reserve: The bottom 50% of Americans own 5.9% of America’s wealth The bottom 90% of Americans own 36.1% of America’s wealth The bottom 99% of Americans own 71.7% of America’s wealth The bottom 99.9% of Americans own 88.6% of America’s wealth Equivalently: The top 50% of Americans own 94.1% of America’s wealth The top 10% of Americans own 63.9% of America’s wealth The top 1% of Americans own 28....

I majored in government in college, then got my PhD in economics. These subjects fascinate me because government and the economy shape our lives so profoundly. Government and the economy are intertwined. A capitalist economy without government regulation will lead to exploitative monopolies, extreme inequality, labor abuses, unsafe food & medicine, child poverty, a permanent underclass, privatized (or lousy/non-existent) roads/telecoms/police/schools/jails, no help for the homeless, mentally ill, destitute elders, etc., and air/water pollution, environmental degradation, global warming, and many other harmful “externalities” (privatized benefits and socialized harms)....