/** * file: karbytes_11_july_2023.txt * type: plain-text * date: 11_JULY_2023 * author: karbytes * license: PUBLIC_DOMAIN */ Yesterday karbytes finalized the website directory named KARBYTES_JOURNAL_2023_POST_BIRTHDAY of the website named Karbytes For Life dot WordPress dot Com. Today karbytes updated the directory web page named KARBYTES_CODE_CONTINUES of the website named Karbytes For Life Blog dot WordPress dot Com. Yesterday karbytes was distressed by some facts it learned while watching a video of an interview downloaded from YouTube named "Marc Andreessen: Future of the Internet, Technology, and AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #386" about how professional truck drivers, on average, have a shorter life expectancy of approximately ten years than most other people as a result of being exposed to relatively high amounts of solar radiation and environmental toxins which are carcinogenic and stressful on the human body. karbytes was also worried about overexposing itself to such hazards as a result of spending so much time outside. karbytes has also been significantly distressed by being in the presence of other people so often (which makes karbytes want to look for a full-time warehouse job out in Livermore instead of a customer service job closer to Hayward such as cashiering or fast food service (and a warehouse job typically is impractical to commute to without a car due to long distances, strenuous physical labor involved in the job, and unreliability and lack of availability of 24 hour public transportation)). For that reason, karbytes is planning on borrowing its parents' Toyota Matrix and using it to commute to a warehouse job so that karbytes can minimize its exposure to overcrowded, noisy, and polluted environments and maximize how much free time karbytes has outside of working. As soon as feasible, karbytes intends to buy its own 100% electric car such as a two-seater Smart car. * * * karbytes got posession of the aforementioned car. karbytes saw that the car's gasoline tank was approximately 60% full. karbytes put its bicycle inside the car and moved it less than a quarter mile away from karbytes' mother's house so that the car wouldn't get blocked by other cars which park in front of it at karbytes' mother's house. Within the next five hours karbytes intends to shower, wash its clothes, pick up work clothes from karbytes' room at karbytes' father's house, and then move the car to a place where karbytes intends to search for jobs and submit job applications. In the past karbytes was happiest applying for jobs in Dublin/Pleasanton courtyards instead of at California State University East Bay in Haward or anywhere in Castro Valley due to the meddling interference of other people who seemed to enjoy taunting and distracting karbytes. In Dublin/Pleasanton there seems to be more space to hang out in and a lower volume of annoying humans (which makes Dublin/Pleasanton a suitable place to call its "home away from home" as it also has hotels, 24 hour gasoline stations, several grocery stores, several general stores (to get things like electronics, bicycles, clothes, shoes, camping gear, and all other items which karbytes deems to be essential to surviving and thriving). karbytes has had no problems yet keeping the car long-term parked on the 4th floor of the East Dublin parking garage. Hence, karbytes intends to use that same parking spot again until and unless it becomes too problematic to continue doing so. One important note karbytes would like to make about the aforementioned video it watched is the topic of utopian idealization. The man being interviewed by Lex said that he was not a utopian and explained why (which intrigued karbytes because, up until that point in karbytes' life, karbytes felt obliged to uphold an image of itself as being a staunch utopian). karbytes no longer considers itself to be a utopian. What that means is that karbytes no longer believes it is physically possible for any intelligent entities (humans or otherwise) to achieve a problem-free society because, even if all poverty, disease, violent conflict, and censorship has been eliminated, there always exists the possibility that such maladies could arise again in the future (due to the fact that, logically speaking, no empirical knowledge is ever 100% certain (though knowledge which can be classified as being a part of pure logic or pure mathematics is arguably infallible and 100% certain according to logical and mathematical proofs (which can be communicated using empirical data from one information processing agent to some other information processing agent))). Also, even if the problems of the past do not ever arise again in a respective civilization, new problems are expected to arise such as discovering bugs in software, points of vulnerability in physical infrastructure, alien invasions, emergence of aggressive new forms of pathogens which are immune to existing anti-pathogen technology, and, in a very long term scope, the destabilization of matter which is expected to inevitably occur as a result of space expanding at an accelerating rate (though karbytes hypothesizes that humans will find a way to escape that "heat death of the universe" by traveling to a new universe through some kind of worm hole (whether that universe is discovered by humans or else created by humans)). (karbytes also wanted to mention that karbytes anticipates that, within the next ten years (and hopefully five years), electric cars will become the norm and easily affordable and convenient for the masses while fossil fuels production and usage is entirely replaced by nuclear fusion energy production and other non fossil fuels energy production such as harvesting electricity from incoming solar radiation using photovoltaics and heat conductors, harvesting electricity from rotating magnets through a relatively stationary magnetic field using water or wind powered turbines (or from steam which is produced from heating water which is close to Earth's magma layer, or maybe even from a bunch of humans on stationary exercise bikes getting fit and helping to (negligibly) contribute clean energy to the municipal grid). * * * Is every person entitled to a job? Is employment a basic human right? Suppose I am hired by some company which pays me to write software and I have an artificial intelligence do the bulk of that job such that a project which would take me approximately 12 hours to complete ends up only taking me 4 hours. Should I be paid for the number of hours I log that I was working (such that I get paid some fixed number of dollars per hour) log or ahould I be paid a fixed amount of money per week (irregardless of how many hours I log working)? If a robot could do all the tasks which I am paid to do at some job and that robot completes those tasks faster and more reliiably (on average) than I do, why should I not be fired from the hiring company in order to save that company money? To answer the most recent question I asked, I would say, "Not necessarily because I might be useful as a human quality assurance agent who monitors the robot's work output for safety and to ensure that specific standards are met which is reassuring to humans in that company and who are clients of that company who prefer some degree of human involvement in such work." I would rather not bother answering the question in the second paragraph of this section of this note before I answer the questions in the first paragraph of this note. No I do not think employment is a basic human right. If most jobs are outsourced to robots and only some very specialized or highly skilled jobs are assigned to humans, then most people would necessarily need some kind of unconditional regular income which is sufficient to pay for those humans to enjoy a decent standard of living. In order to prevent humans from foolishly spending too much of their money on things other than basic necessities, people should be issued vouchers for basic necessities and money for all other purchases. I still would rather not answer the question I did not yet answer because I think it is a frivolous concern in light of my recent answer. In other words, I'll just let the hiring company decide how to determine my pay rate and, if I don't like it, I'll look for a different job (instead of go on strike or try to sue my company). * * * My latest theory as to why a (liveable) universal basic income has not been implemented in my country of origin yet is because there is a prevalent fear that too many people would squander their time on money on harmful addictions and criminal activity. What I mean to imply is that people are basically forced to go to work primarily as a means to prevent them from engaging in problematic behavior. Metaphorically speaking, I consider such a phenomenon to be handcuffing people for eight hours per day five days per week while they are coerced into engaging in "ice breaker" activities which helps then build a sense of loyalty with the company and a sense of community and affinity with fellow employees at that company. Whether I am issued an unconditional basic income or not, I intend to make my software development and art projects a core part of my life (because such endeavors are a core part of my sense of purpose and pleasure in life). I think that, if every person was granted a unconditional basic income like what I described in the previous section of this note, most people would not squander their time nor money. Instead, I expect that there would be a proliferation of artistic achievement and an increase in average well-being due to the fact that everyone would be paid to study and to pursue what personally interests them rather than struggle to barely survive or to worry themselves sick that they will end up homeless and otherwise deprived of what they depend on for comfort and survival as a result of losing their jobs.