Universal basic income isn’t always AGI-proof 2024-09-05T15:39:18.389Z

Why Swiss watches and Taylor Swift are AGI-proof 2024-09-05T13:23:27.033Z

Will we ever run out of new jobs? 2024-08-19T15:04:03.849Z

Analysis of key AI analogies 2024-06-29T10:55:21.925Z

Comment by Kevin Kohler (KevinKohler) on Will we ever run out of new jobs? · 2024-09-06T08:55:27.802Z · LW · GW

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"

Comment by Kevin Kohler (KevinKohler) on Universal basic income isn’t always AGI-proof · 2024-09-06T07:10:10.208Z · LW · GW

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 UBI advocates still suggest it as the default funding mechanism.
3. Yes, I am writing a whole series on the AGI economy, so in some sense this is just the prelude to explain why saying "money is the solution to people not having money" doesn't solve the challenge of getting the money. Texts on everything from robot tax, to sovereign wealth funds, to windfall clause, to OECD/G20 tax treaty, to pension funds, to global commons management will follow

Comment by Kevin Kohler (KevinKohler) on Analysis of key AI analogies · 2024-06-29T13:31:56.979Z · LW · GW

Thanks - appreciated!

Comment by Kevin Kohler (KevinKohler) on Space colonization: what can we definitely do and how do we know that? · 2019-05-08T19:39:32.863Z · LW · GW

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 is controllable and the constant usage of the term "colonization" is confusing, if not plainly wrong. I wrote a more comprehensive version (ca 45 minutes reading time) of this argument here: https://medium.com/@KevinKohlerFM/cosmic-anarchy-and-its-consequences-b1a557b1a2e3