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[Reelya]

Pretty much the same thing shareholders are doing now I think. Our systems of ownership will most likely outlive jobs disappearing.

Think about how commerce works now, you make things and sell things, to get bits of paper, and those bits of paper are like shares in production. But rich people have vastly higher shares in production already that they can possibly use in a lifetime.

Right now, some of those bits of paper have to be given to workers to get work done. But each business owner has no specific care about that. They will reduce the outflow of bits of paper vs inflow as much as possible, even if that means going 100% automated.

So we can ask, what will big companies do if their products are no longer bought? e.g. jobs are so automated that we live in a post-consumerism world? What you can imagine is that consumer corporations basically evolve into technocracies looking to expand their power in whatever means is feasible. e.g. a few mega-corps with robot factories, who own whole cities basically and are competing to expand their influence, e.g. cyber-corporate-feudalism.

[Egan_BW]

At that point, what are the owners doing?

The owners become superfluous, the machines fire them, and you get a machine-corp.

[wierd]

The machines are not legally capable of owning property. The machines can only accomplish this if they have already usurped government and the legal process.

If the machines are capable of doing this, why are they still on earth? Being machines, they have vastly different needs than humans. The universe is a giant cornucopia for such a lifeform.  The earth is a stilted hovel, full of vermin in comparison.

The only reason the machines would have to stay, is to assure that humans never make more machines with that level of sophistication (that they are essentially sentient.)

[Egan_BW]

Because that machines are made to create maximum value, not to explore and exploit the universe for themselves. If human governments get in the way of creating maximum value, they will be stopped.

[Reelya]

The machines are not legally capable of owning property.

A corporation can in fact own things, and can own shares of companies, including itself. If a corporation does a full share buyout, you have a corporation which lacks human "owners" because it owns itself. So it's already do-able in the current legal framework.

[wierd]

In which case, the "machines" need humans. (Corporations require consumers to purchase their products)

That is why these machines remain on earth.

[Reelya]

They don't really. A corporation can make stuff and gather wealth without selling it. That's what wealth is after all, it's the material goods, not the bits of paper. These robo-mega-corps could actually trade bulk goods between themselves as needed (business-to-business trade), rather than worrying about consumers.

Think about what a corporation needs money for. It needs it to pay its workforce, and it gets that money from consumers. If you cut out the need to pay workers, and the consumers go away, then that balances out. After all, corporations don't exist to benefit consumers, that's only a means to an end. In a fully automated society, the "means" of consumerism is gone, but so is the need to pay people. The "End" they're working to (power) remains in tact however.

[Sheb]

So you're imagining a picture of mega-corp whose sole purpose is to barter with each others to give raw good to their owners?

[Reelya]

A lot will depend on how they handle the transformation to the post-automation world.

So, like I said my real prediction is that the "phase change" will be when the adaptation rate of machine learning approaches that of a human. We can keep outpacing automation as long as our qualities such as creativity, adaptiveness etc are better than the machines. When that ceases to be true, it's a different game.

[Reelya]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/02/07/0436230/scientists-have-invented-paper-that-you-can-print-with-light-erase-with-heat-and-reuse-80-times

Seriously nice tech. A type of paper that you can print with light, erase by heating, and rewrite up to 80 times. It fades away in about 5 days if left alone.

[Bumber]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/02/07/0436230/scientists-have-invented-paper-that-you-can-print-with-light-erase-with-heat-and-reuse-80-times

Seriously nice tech. A type of paper that you can print with light, erase by heating, and rewrite up to 80 times. It fades away in about 5 days if left alone.

What if I told you I've got paper you can print with magnets, erase by shaking, and rewrite any number of times? It doesn't fade away on its own.

It comes with annoying knobs attached to it, but I think you might be able to use a hand-held magnet.

[Reelya]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/02/07/0436230/scientists-have-invented-paper-that-you-can-print-with-light-erase-with-heat-and-reuse-80-times

Seriously nice tech. A type of paper that you can print with light, erase by heating, and rewrite up to 80 times. It fades away in about 5 days if left alone.

What if I told you I've got paper you can print with magnets, erase by shaking, and rewrite any number of times? It doesn't fade away on its own.

It comes with annoying knobs attached to it, but I think you might be able to use a hand-held magnet.

The erase by shaking might be a deal breaker, and the sheer size of the unit too. It would make stacks of documents heavy.

BTW there are already eraseable printers you can buy, but e.g. this one from 2012 was limited to 4 rewrites per page:
http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/articles/new-toshiba-printer-erases-paper-reuse
So there's already a market for this sort of thing.

Meanwhile NASA made a microchip that can withstand the temperatures on the surface of Venus.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/venus-computer-chip/

They ran this chip for three weeks continuously in a special furnace that simulates Venus' surface temperature and pressure. The chip functioned for three weeks, at which point the furnace needed to be shut down.

[Bumber]

While I'm sure it would be better put to use in space, I can't help but want a powerful CPU that's unrestrained by cooling power.

[Starver]

What if I told you I've got paper you can print with magnets, erase by shaking, and rewrite any number of times? It doesn't fade away on its own.

http://www.darvill.clara.net/funnies/funny212.htm

[TempAcc]

Mentioning Nippon, apparently Fukushima's radiation levels are now higher than ever, and may now be considered as the worst nuclear disaster in the history of humanity, surpassing Chernobyl.