participant-2294, 5:16 PM, April 20
There have been discussions on X about UBI following Elon Musk’s post. What do you think?
participant-4603, 5:21 PM, April 20
It’s a rather curious, Andrew Yang-like take from his part.
participant-2294, 5:32 PM, April 20
I understand Elon Musk’s, Dryden Brown’s, and others’ concerns about possible mass unemployment. In fact, robots and AI will almost inevitably lead to some form of autotopia, as in science fiction.
participant-4603, 5:40 PM, April 20
So, it’s not so irrational at all then?
participant-2294, 5:45 PM, April 20
Naw, it’s not irrational. Preventing masses of unemployed people from turning to looting, violence, or communist unrest, potentially amplified by foreign adversaries such as China, is a rational trade-off calculation.
participant-2294, 5:59 PM, April 20
If AI or robots were to cause mass unemployment, the preferable outcome would be for private firms to build their own ecosystems with corporate credits, so they can avoid the free-rider problem. If that still proved insufficient, a large share of capitalists would likely end up pushing for some form of UBI.
participant-3927, 7:53 PM, April 20
It’s communism
participant-3927, 7:54 PM, April 20
No to UBI
participant-3927, 7:56 PM, April 20
Also any support of statism is off limits on this channel
participant-2294, 8:43 PM, April 20
No, it isn’t. The capital remains in private hands.
participant-2294, 8:48 PM, April 20
If AI and robots were to create mass unemployment in the future, anyone opposing solutions would only end up serving the interests of the People’s Republic of China, which would exploit the situation to ignite a global communist revolution.
participant-3927, 8:51 PM, April 20
The whole idea of this mass unemployment, which is bogus, is Marxism. An old tune by now.
participant-3927, 8:52 PM, April 20
The state may not interfere in economics no matter what. UBI is such interference
participant-2294, 8:56 PM, April 20
You are reasoning from a 1960s standpoint, formed when AI and robotics were still science fiction. And the only answer you seem to have is that AI and robots will never replace human labor, even though the whole point of AI and robots is to replace human labor.
participant-2294, 8:57 PM, April 20
I hope it happens in 1,000 years, but you cannot rationally believe that it would not create problems.
participant-3927, 8:57 PM, April 20
It doesn’t matter. I am not in competition with other people, or robots. The more the merrier
participant-3927, 8:58 PM, April 20
There is no fixed pie
participant-3927, 9:00 PM, April 20
There are only two possibilities: a robot is fully autonomous on a task, which means it’s freeing time for a person to do something else.
Or, it needs supervision , which means a job for the person.
participant-3927, 9:03 PM, April 20
Harry Binswanger has a good post on robots on substack
participant-2294, 9:05 PM, April 20
If a robot is fully autonomous, a company is not going to pay wages to your robot when it can just use its own robots.
participant-3927, 9:08 PM, April 20
No, it means no person needs to work on it. It’s no longer a concern, like air: we don’t work to have air. It’s free . Resources made by fully autonomous processes will be free like air
participant-2294, 9:10 PM, April 20
Then I agree with what you’re saying.
participant-3927, 9:16 PM, April 20
Btw, with coding agents, devs are expected to work at 10x output
participant-3927, 9:17 PM, April 20
The speed up is now expected and required to get paid
participant-3927, 1:53 AM, April 21
Please share among libertarians
participant-3927, 3:19 AM, April 21
Xenia Ioannou, an Objectivist from Australia, herself a blogger, asks me via public comment on my post: “Do you really think there is no hope for freedom?” Here’s my answer:
There is always a hope, but I think a catalyst is needed to make the chemical reaction go faster. For Ayn Rand, the catalyst was the power of her fiction writing – it’s impossible to put her books down. For instance, I heard that many high schoolers love reading “Anthem.” I heard of leftists or conservatives declaring that they enjoyed reading Atlas Shrugged of which they are ashamed.
But we have to be realistic of our own abilities. No Objectivist succeeded in getting the attention that Ayn Rand got. We need another catalyst. The catalyst can be Anthemism. Much like early Zionism, Anthemism is not only philosophy but action.
Particularly, the younger generation has a yearning to do things, not to sit at lectures. A fireside chat after a long day of active work, that’s what it can handle. Not every person wants to become a YouTuber to try to make an impact that way.
participant-2294, 2:47 PM, April 21
I would be interested in reading your critique of Randy Barnett’s polycentric constitutional order and Robert Nozick’s meta-utopia under the minimal state.
participant-2294, 2:52 PM, April 21
Barnett is intelligent enough not to describe his stateless capitalism as anarchy.
participant-3927, 4:51 PM, April 21
My reading is focused on starting a new country
participant-3927, 4:53 PM, April 21
Another prominent guy who addresses Libertarian and Marxist arguments (from Objectivist perspective) is Nikos Sotirakopoulos
participant-4603, 5:27 PM, April 21
Such a terrific speaker. A big fan of Israel.
participant-3927, 7:53 PM, April 21
While I have been learning the founding of Israel (Herzl and Weizmann), the TPI folks have been taking example from the founding of America, and Thomas Paine in particular.
participant-4603, 7:57 PM, April 21
Love it. The Treaty of Paris was in 1783, not 1788, a minor, insignificant point. The U.S. Constitution, as we know it now, was ratified in ’88, and the first presidential elections ended in 1789. Again, these are minor points and don’t take away from Kevin Osborne & Alex Bleier.
participant-3927, 8:11 PM, April 21
And while I have been looking in Europe for land, the TPI is making the case for Puerto Rico
participant-4603, 8:15 PM, April 21
If someone has an “in” inside the U.S. State Department, it might be worth reviving American claims to this place:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serranilla_Bank
, especially in light of allegations that the occupier, Colombia, is still involved in the drug trade.
participant-4603, 8:16 AM, April 22
To me, it’s funny, all the rhetoric from the White House, and in particular the president, particularly after he took out Maduro, saying that the Colombian President should watch his ass. I believe that’s a direct quote, and to think that the United States has somewhat dormant Guano Island Act claims in the Western Caribbean that it could resuscitate, and I think one of Marco Rubio’s under secretaries could probably get the Colombians, Hondurans, and Jamaicans to withdraw their claims, and it could be organised as an unorganised, unincorporated US territory, which it probably is already unofficially.
For someone that is daring and adventurous, it’s probably worth writing a letter to the US State Department and addressing it to someone that has more of Marco Rubio’s ideology. Granted, they’re probably busy with other matters, but there are several such guano island possibilities in the Caribbean. I mean, the US still administers Navassa, and it is unlikely it will ever get turned over to Haiti.
I’m trying to remember, but I think some disciples of Ayn Rand tried buying up Navassa, and I’m almost positive they tried buying up the Haitian island of Tortuga, but this was way long ago, as in before anyone here was born.
participant-3927, 12:51 PM, April 22
Interesting reef, particularly since it’s under dispute. As for dealing with current US administration, it’s a bad idea. Need to wait it out until
Democrats get in power.
participant-2294, 2:26 PM, April 22
@participant-3927 your main competitor
participant-2294, 2:33 PM, April 22
Praxis is the most solid project aimed at building a new country, both in terms of funding and its ability to recruit people. It would be interesting to start a debate with Dryden.
participant-2294, 2:35 PM, April 22
I’m starting to think Dryden want to make deals with dictatorships.
participant-2294, 2:35 PM, April 22
“Join the Government”
participant-3927, 2:40 PM, April 22
I have to look into his position.
participant-3927, 2:42 PM, April 22
Praxis from praxeology (Mises)
participant-4603, 2:43 PM, April 22
Much of his funding is in the form of soft commitments; however, he has certainly raised some serious cash, though not the $500 million they claim, at least not yet. He is definitely right about building beautiful things, that’s for sure.
participant-3927, 2:43 PM, April 22
Does anyone of you have Dryden’s acquaintance?
participant-2294, 2:45 PM, April 22
I don’t think it’s necessarily a reference to Mises; I think it’s just Praxis as praxis. Moreover, it’s also the name of the publisher of many of the books he owns (see old photos), so I think he got it from there.
participant-2294, 2:47 PM, April 22
Naw.
participant-3927, 2:47 PM, April 22
I DMed Dryden:
Hello Dryden, my name is Boris Reitman, I am the founder of Anthemism.
Anthemism (or going anthem) is the abandonment of reforming existing states and instead aiming to found a new sovereign state whose political system is laissez-faire capitalism consistent with Objectivism.
I am interested to connect.
participant-3927, 2:52 PM, April 22
participant-3927, 2:53 PM, April 22
Here is a Toastmasters club I run in Vancouver. We are in our second year.
participant-3927, 2:53 PM, April 22
I will shortly delete this photo because I don’t want it backup to online archive
participant-3927, 2:54 PM, April 22
But, I want to show you that by running this club I am forced to interact with people and not live like a hermit
participant-3927, 2:55 PM, April 22
The unique thing about my club is it’s the only Russian speaking club in North America
participant-3927, 2:56 PM, April 22
I started it to improve my Russian rhetorical skills, since I think a land territory will be made available where native population speaks Russian
participant-3927, 2:57 PM, April 22
And there is a Russian Anthemism website with all articles cloned , as well as a Russian telegram channel for Anthemism
participant-3927, 2:57 PM, April 22
Some people in this channel are also there
participant-3927, 2:59 PM, April 22
Similarly I started a fiction reading club in November and we had 4 meetings so far.
participant-2294, 2:59 PM, April 22
I’m happy you’re not an ancap
participant-3927, 3:00 PM, April 22
This month we are reading Stephen King’s “The Long Walk”. Last month it was Solaris, by Lem. Before that Molier “School of Wives” and the “Faust” play (not Goethe’s)
participant-4233, 3:01 PM, April 22
I think The Long Walk was lame
Both the book and the movie
participant-3927, 3:02 PM, April 22
I agreed to read it because I never read Stephen King before. So that I can form an opinion.
participant-2294, 3:04 PM, April 22
It’s a joke, anw. You know how they pretend to be yeomen in the Wild West? That’s the reference; if you’ve used Reddit even once, you’ll get it.
participant-3927, 3:04 PM, April 22
We also read “Notes from underground” by Dostoyevsky. This is a key piece that can be contrasted to Ayn Rand’s essay “The Comprachicos”
participant-4603, 3:21 PM, April 22
I love Toastmasters. I used to attend an Anglophone one in MTL about 10 years ago. Such good times.
participant-3927, 7:31 PM, April 22
Ukraine is getting 90 billion euro .
participant-3927, 10:34 PM, April 23
Fiction books listed at the Anthemism library page:
Anthem — Ayn Rand Kindle
Atlas Shrugged — Ayn Rand Kindle
The Fountainhead — Ayn Rand Kindle
We the Living — Ayn Rand Kindle
The Island of Crimea — Vasily Aksyonov Amazon
Foundation — Isaac Asimov Kindle
The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood Kindle
The Shipwreck Island — Alexander Belyaev Kindle
Planet of the Apes — Pierre Boulle Kindle
The Martian Chronicles — Ray Bradbury Kindle
Robinson Crusoe — Daniel Defoe Kindle
Daniel Deronda — George Eliot Kindle
Lord of the Flies — William Golding Kindle
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress — Robert A. Heinlein Kindle
Dune — Frank Herbert Kindle
Les Misérables — Victor Hugo Kindle
Brave New World — Aldous Huxley Kindle
Mowgli (The Jungle Book) — Rudyard Kipling Kindle
The Dispossessed — Ursula K. Le Guin Kindle
1984 — George Orwell Kindle
The Prometheus Frontier — Kevin Osborne Kindle
Hard to Be a God — Strugatsky Amazon
Looking for Hugh — Leon Weinstein Kindle
The Time Machine — H. G. Wells Kindle
participant-3927, 11:41 PM, April 23
I’m not sure how many listeners it has. Probably not many.
