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Comment by verdverm | Hacker News Reader

Birth rates are declining below replacement levels, the one-child policy has been reversed due to its unintended consequences. Why do you think it an idea worthy of entertaining?

Thinking machines, I say no, and the genie is out of the bottle and won't be going back anyway, re: open weights, real utility, and China. We do need to have more rational discussions, eg. the doomerism is out of hand and there are some serious social implications I hear few talk about, but Ai is more about how we choose to use it than whether we will.

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There is this fixation to have a growing population. There are people that believe that there has to be population growth to fund retirement; it doesn't work like that anymore. Pensions are paid by the same generation of people using forecasts.

The social implication will be that there will be that there will be population decline and more resources. It is not doom and gloom.

You will do what I want because I have gone out of my way to ensure you have no other choice... But it wasn't my fault mind. Just following the incentives.

--Silicon Valley/VC

> Just following the incentives.

The Tyranny of Meritocracy - Michael Sandel

This is on my list of books to purchase for next time I'm at the store. Been watching some of his lectures and interviews, and at the core, part of the problem is this incentive structure we created through meritocracy. That common social convention would have it be that those at the top deserve their earnings, they deserve our reverence and deference, similarly for those at the bottom, though shunning and shame is their reward. But what we get wrong is that there are things beyond our own (their) control. Those at the top would not be, were it not also for some luck along the way and the contributions of a great number of other people. Likewise, those at the bottom are not there only of their own doing and also need the help of others to rise from their circumstance.

It may not be clear, but I find "Following the incentives" to be the modern equivalent of "I was just following orders." I.e. the scapegoat of cowards, and the lubricant of the conscience of those with more money than sense.

Humans are social creatures and reward hack too.

One example that most seem to connect with is targeted advertising. This is where the search and social media feeds ended up following the incentives. The goal was to maximize profit, which mean selling ads, and humans unleashed an algorithm to do that, which followed the incentives and hill climbed to push users' anxiety and fear buttons, because that drove up engagement and ad dollars. Search was a bit different, but followed the same pattern. Today's search results are so very bad and largely gamed.

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