Technology The Neo-Amish Movement: How To Preserve Tradition in a Technological World

[Allanon]

Well, having worked with such people, there are considerable variations within the groups.

When people think Amish they think people like in "Witness," but there are varying degrees of Amish, some almost resembling the Mennonites. There is no such thing as just "Amish" or "Mennonite." If Amish reject motor vehicles I've driven them home from work in a tress place in a minivan owned by a Mennonite. I've purchased things from e-Bay for an Amish who used LED lights and some smaller power tools. Then, just up the road from that Mennonite, is an Amish barn with cows, lit by...kerosene lanterns. yet one of them had one of those headband LED lamps.

 

[Allanon]

Point being, doomsday prepping for the singularity on a national scale with a nuclear deterrent to hold off invasion and autarky to prevent race-to-the-bottom economic competition with robot and transhuman workers who're objectively more capable than baseline human ones is completely different from doing so on an individual scale where you can't really do anything. No nuclear-armed nations have stated their willingness to do so and why would they, national leadership would be one of the very few political classes who'd stand to benefit from cheap robot labor and mindlessly loyal robot security.

The biggest problem would be human beings becoming too dependent and stupid because of it- helpless. A cyber-terrorist could cause a disaster, and who really wants to be dependent on Microsoft Windows?

 

[Marduk]

Point being, doomsday prepping for the singularity on a national scale with a nuclear deterrent to hold off invasion and autarky to prevent race-to-the-bottom economic competition with robot and transhuman workers who're objectively more capable than baseline human ones is completely different from doing so on an individual scale where you can't really do anything.

Welp, "nuclear deterrent" and "autarky" are not magic spells. Just because you say them in no way guarantees you will get the effect you imagine behind them.
In a world with other major powers having insane technologies straight from science fiction, more so than ever. USA already has something like 90-95% effective methods to neutralize the nuclear deterrent of a country like North Korea. We can hardly imagine what kind of improvements on that one could figure out with such insane technologies to help.
As for autarky, well, good luck with that, ask any economist.

No nuclear-armed nations have stated their willingness to do so and why would they, national leadership would be one of the very few political classes who'd stand to benefit from cheap robot labor and mindlessly loyal robot security.

The only real answer is to proliferate AGI beyond the elites.
Also we are using cheap robot labor since decades. Ok, it may not be *so* bad if you are USA, but the political shock alone would be bad enough to bring the initiative down, especially in USA.

Would *you* want one of these robot jobs? Back in Henry Ford's days each of these robots would be replaced by some number of factory workers.

 

[Allanon]

Problem is, such mindless jobs meant jobs were abundant once- then they were gone. People with no skills were chronically unemployed.

And no-skill or low-skill jobs meant one could walk in and be working by the end of the week. There was flexibility that is no longer there.