From AI Robots to Post-Scarcity Dreams | Shimmy Says Ep. 35

Hey everyone, it's Shimmy, and welcome to another Shimmy says, you know, it's the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm sure you guys are all ready to make your holiday plans and spend time with family, loved ones friends, as I will too. I wanted to take a couple minutes though to talk about something that was in the news this week. I'm, you probably saw it, Elon Musk came on.

It was, it's been a, it's on video. I think it was at a Saudi, uh, investment conference or something like that. But Elon Musk said, within the next couple of years, AI and robotics, AI empowered robotics are basically gonna make poverty obsolete.

Money obsolete work will be optional. You know, and it sounded, it sounded positively utopian, but me being a trekkee, I, I immediately thought of Star Trek, right? I thought of Zephyr from Cochran.

I, I know what you're saying. Who's Zein Cochran? Well, if you're a, if you are a, a Trekkee like me, you know who Zephyr Cochran is.

And if you're not a Trekkee, maybe you're a Star Wars person, you could Google it. But Zephyr Cochran was the man who invented the Warp Drive in Star Trek lore. And there's actually two Zephyr Cochran Cochran characters in Star Trek.

In Star Trek, the original series, it's way after he invented the Warp Drive, hundreds of years. He shouldn't be alive anymore, but they find him, Kirk and the team find him living on some planet with some alien thing called the Companion, who takes the shape of a beautiful woman who's in love with Zephyr, and they live together. Um, and then she gets sick.

There's a whole plot. But that's not the Zephyr Cochran I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Zephyr Cochran from the 1996 film, first Contact.

That's where we meet the Vulcans. And if you remember, again, if you're a rek, and if you're not, I'll tell you if you remember, earth had been through a hard time. There was post-war, I guess it was some sort of nuclear war, and civilization was sort of teetering, right?

They, they, people were living in small groups subsisting off the land, but, you know, if they banged the jukebox, it played and there was still liquor to be had. And then there was this kinda rogue guy named Zephyr Cochran, I think he lived up in Montana, and he had sort of a jug hat crown on. And, um, but Zein was able to take like an old Titan nuclear missile and build the warp drive.

And, and he went up in, in, into orbit, engaged his warp, drive the Vulcan, saw it. That was enough to show that Earth was on their way to, I guess it was worthy of, of being, uh, contacted. And they came down and made first contact.

And that's what set up this whole Star Trek civilization where we didn't really have jobs, per se. We don't really have money. Everyone's needs are taken care of.

And that's what Elon seems to be talking about, right? Everyone's needs will be taken care of. We'll have some sort of basic, uh, monetary or, you know, basic, uh, support for, I guess from a government or whatever.

But when, you know, it sounds great. Hey, look, I'm a, I love star check. I love, we'd love to have that future.

But getting from there to there, from here to there would, is a stretch, even if we take for granted or we accept the notion that robots will replace physical work, that AI will replace sort of mental services and work. What, what is that really the fate of humanity? You think you humans will wind up like Star Trek people, and you think we're just gonna sit around all day and contemplate the meaning of life.

And this, if there really is a God, um, humans need work. They need, they need challenges. They need competition without money.

How, you know, how does one, and, and I, I, I realize this sounds downright awful, but how does one track their net worth, right? Wi without money or some other substitute to show, you know, that what they're doing, and I, I guess you can't make the case. You can, but just, are we ready as a species to accept that, right?

Are we ready to become an, in essence, a society of atheistic saints where we're all in it, right? Everybody's needs are taken care of. We don't have to worry about things like that, and we're all just content to have that, or is, you know, does the the cane, uh, in, in humanity come out and, and covet thy neighbor's goods, if not their wife, right?

What I, I just, as much as I would love to buy into what Elon's push in here, I think you'd have to agree it's a little bit naive or a little bit far out there to think that we are ready to move into a world where there's no longer money. It'd be great if we eliminated poverty and hunger and all of these things, but we can't eliminate human nature. And human nature, I think, is to compete.

And human nature is to take as much as you can. For some people, it is to take more than they need. So, you know, on this Thanksgiving, I think it's worthy to think about ending poverty, ending unemployment and obsolescence and, and making everyone feel part of society.

But I, I, you know, until we get there, we've got some serious work to do. And that starts, I think, the day after tomorrow. And we, we need to, you know, make robotics and AI and quantum, I think they have tremendous opportunity to improve the human condition.

I don't think we'll be getting Star Trek just yet, but I, I do think we, we, I'm, I'm optimistic that we're on the verge of some really great things. So on behalf of Techstrong Futurum and all our folks here, to all of you, I hope you enjoy this Thanksgiving. I hope it is a peaceful, restful great Thanksgiving.

It gives you a chance to think back and reflect, not only think back, but look forward. And let's do strive to, you know, eliminate poverty, eliminate strife, world peace, all of these great things that are possible with, with the technology we're working on. And, and think of ways that we can get there.

It may not happen in my lifetime or your lifetime, but maybe it can happen. So happy Thanksgiving everyone. Peace on earth and, and my best Star Trek Live long and Prosper.