| --- |
| title: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12) (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016934)" |
| source: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12)" |
| sourceUrl: "https://www.justice.gov/epstein" |
| date: "2026-01-01" |
| category: "House Oversight" |
| eftaNumber: "HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016934" |
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| externalUrl: "https://ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| --- |
| |
| Sadly, Keynes's predictions did not come true. Although productivity did indeed |
| increase, the system-possibly inherent in a market economy-did not result in humans |
| working much shorter hours. Rather, what happened is what the anthropologist and |
| anarchist David Graeber describes as the growth of "bullshit jobs."34 While jobs that |
| produce essentials like food, shelter, and goods have been largely automated away, we |
| have seen an enormous expansion of sectors like corporate law, academic and health |
| administration (as opposed to actual teaching, research, and the practice of medicine), |
| "human resources," and public relations, not to mention new industries like financial |
| services and telemarketing and ancillary industries in the so-called gig economy which |
| serve those who are too busy doing all that additional work. |
| How will societies cope with technology's increasingly rapid destruction of entire |
| professions and throwing large numbers of people out of work? Some argue that this |
| concern is based on a false premise, because new jobs spring up that didn't exist before, |
| but as Graeber points out, these new jobs won't necessarily be rewarding or fulfilling. |
| During the first industrial revolution, it took almost a century before most people were |
| better off. That revolution was possible only because the government of the time |
| ruthlessly favored property rights over labor, and most people (and all women) did not |
| have the vote. In today's democratic societies, it is not clear that the population will |
| tolerate such a dramatic upheaval of society based on the promise that "eventually" |
| things will get better. |
| Even that rosy vision will depend on a radical shake-up of education and lifelong |
| learning. The Industrial Revolution did trigger enormous social change of this kind, |
| including a shift to universal education. But it will not happen unless we make it happen: |
| This is essentially about power, agency, and control. What's next for, say, the forty-year- |
| old taxi driver or truck driver in an era of autonomous vehicles? |
| One idea that has been touted is that of a universal basic income, which will allow |
| citizens to pursue their interests, retrain for new occupations, and generally be free to live |
| a decent life. However, market economies, which are predicated on growing consumer |
| demand over all else, may not tolerate this innovation. There is also a feeling among |
| many that meaningful work is essential to human dignity and fulfillment. So another |
| possibility is that the enormous wealth generated by increased productivity due to |
| automation could be redistributed to jobs requiring human labor and creativity in fields |
| such as the arts, music, social work, and other worthwhile pursuits. Ultimately, which |
| jobs are rewarding or productive and which are "bullshit" is a matter of judgment and |
| may vary from society to society, as well as over time. |
| So far, I've focused on Al's practical consequences. As a scientist, what bothers me is |
| our potential loss of understanding. We are now accumulating data at an incredible rate. |
| In my own lab, an experiment generates over a terabyte of data a day. These data are |
| massaged, analyzed, and reduced until there is an interpretable result. But in all of this |
| data analysis, we believe we know what's happening. We know what the programs are |
| 34 https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ |
| 131 |
| HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016934 |
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