Andrew Yang and The Steem Blockchain

avatar

yang.jpg

I almost don't ever talk about it on any social media, but I'm actually pretty engaged with politics. Since he entered the race I've been following Andrew Yang. Since I'm also a technology nerd and someone where my work deals in bleeding edge tech, I can see first hand how machine learning is having an impact on technology.

Yang is trying to make his message digestible for regular non-technical people so he just says automation and robots most of the time, but the issue is actually more nuanced and complicated than that if you really have a better understanding of what's going on. As I mentioned I have first hand experience of what's coming down the pipe so I can give an anecdotal example, but understand that mine is one of countless areas impacted by not only automation and robots, but just the natural evolution of technology.

So if you follow me, you probably know I teach art at an art university. I teach in the game design department and the focus is on design for games as well as 3D asset creation. I've been teaching there on and off for several years now. In the years since I started school, to graduating and working to then teaching, in total, around a 15 year span, this industry has changed dramatically, primarily because of technology.

When I first started school tons of professionals still worked with traditional media, but the trend was quickly shifting to digital. It was faster, and more flexible. Traditional requires mastery over different media as well as the actual job, which is design and ideas, but digital, can be learned fairly quickly. Also digital is endlessly flexible, and can be iterated much faster and easier that traditional mediums. In a production environment, it was pretty clear that this was the way things were going.

A few years later, almost everyone exclusively worked digitally, but people were still primarily "painting" on the computer. The next trend though was incorporating more photography into designs. Since Photoshop at its core is a photo manipulation software package and is the primary application used to do 2D game art, it was also a natural evolution. In the following years, this became extremely common. In a production where time is money, if you need to paint a tree to communicate your design idea, are you going to spend hours painting a beautiful tree, of just drag and drop a photo and tweak it to ultimately communicate the same thing? Understand that the job is not to create fine art, it's to communicate ideas.

The next and current trend, as you can see from a lot of my posts is 3D. I've been doing 3D for longer than I've been drawing actually, but up until a few years ago, 3D's usefulness was limited to doing quick mock ups before painting, because the 3D rendering was incredibly slow, and the process was incredibly technical. Since GPU renderers like Octane became a thing, I can render photorealistic images in minutes or seconds, this changes the game again because as someone well versed in 3D, depending on the subject matter, it may be faster for me to build an entire scene in 3D than it is for me to paint it. This would have been pretty unheard of just a few years ago.

betterFog.jpg

SteemCitadel.jpg

crashDesert8BitFin_.jpg
A few examples of artwork created almost 100% in 3D

So what does this have to do with Andrew Yang?

To keep this simple, if I had the same artistic skill I have today 15 years ago, and I attempted to create these images, I imagine they'd take around 10x as long as they took me today. It is purely because of hardware and software technological innovations that my productivity I estimate has been 10x'ed. You might be thinking that that sounds great, and it is, at the individual level, but where it becomes more problematic is at the macro level.

If I'm 10x as productive as I was 15 years ago, that means someone who needs the services I provide needs 10x less employees. They'll be able to do a lot more with a lot less people. Again, this is a double edge sword, part of that is the reason games and movies look SO much better today than they did 15 years ago. Also in a lot of cases, it doesn't work out that companies hire less people, they're just able to do more ambitious projects, but this trend of being able to do more with less is only increasing. Again if you follow me, you've probably seen some of my 3D texture material experiments as well.

2019_03_07_22_58_29.gif

This technology is improving so fast I think it's only a matter of time before it's all just voice activated or totally parameterized. ie You'll be able to say "I need a dirty green bathroom tile...dirtier...less saturated...more wet, etc and the software will just create it for you.

As I mentioned above, this is just my anecdotal example, but this is impacting a ton of different industries and there are some, the ones Yang most often mentions, that could be catastrophically impacted, like call center workers, and everyone who drives a car for a living. Each one of these industries has tangential industries that would also be impacted for a chain reaction that I don't think the world is prepared for.

In our current system of capital over all, we don't have a plan for that many people becoming "valueless" in such a short time span. I don't personally see these people as valueless, but I feel that that's the law of our current system.

This is why I support a UBI like the one Yang proposes. I also feel like this sort of idea falls totally in line with Steem. Steem isn't free money, but Steem does fulfills some of the goals he claims he wants to achieve with his UBI and I think that's redefining value.

Redefining Value

Here on Steem, we have a decentralized mechanism of assigning value. Actifit values activity, some communities value art, some knitting, whatever. It's completely up to individuals to decide what is valuable and what isn't. Yang has mentioned that one of his children is autistic. I have autistic family as well and am familiar with the challenges associated with that. Steem (especially post Communities) would be a perfect place for people dealing with the same hardships to gather and support each other. Emotionally, financially, or otherwise. Imagine people not only here in America, but around the world having a home, where they can take comfort that they'll never be removed or deplatformed or banned. Where people can come together and help each other because as the old saying goes, there's strength in numbers. Imagine how much good a Community for the "Parents of Autistic Children" 50k strong, with collectively millions of SP could do. This is just one example, but this is my vision for Steem, and why I see it as something that could change so many lives.

It could CHANGE THE WORLD.

I'd love for Andrew Yang and the #yanggang to join Steem and get started early with the rest of us early adopters. Let's do our best to help spread the word and let people know what Steem can do for them.



0
0
0.000
22 comments
avatar

In the past there have always been replacement jobs for lost jobs or obsolete skills. This next job flush, may take awhile before the obsolete skill sets and jobs are replaceable. The wagon builders were able to move and become coach builders for the train companies that displaced their old job, then when that job skill set was no longer needed, they moved into the automobile or other factory job environments. It may take awhile before new job industries are opened for people to look at and move into. The Conestoga Wagon makers, could clearly see the end of their skill sets with today's tech level it is hard for the workers let alone the owners of doomed old tech to see tomorrow and what is on the horizon.

A UBI is a very scary road to travel for society. I can see where it may be needed, but I can also see where it is the total and complete destruction of society. It sounds nice, but there is and always will be someone handing the "dole" out, and history shows us that most governments, when it comes to free things, like to take keep and maintain total control. China and its Social Credit system should be a warning for those looking at UBI, and they need to, as far as possible, have as few attached rules and regulations on it as possible.

0
0
0.000
avatar

The idea that this has happened before is something I hear a lot when talking about UBI. My personal opinion is that just because things have unfolded a certain way in the past doesn't mean that will be the case in the future. I also happen to think that this is one of those times. Reason being that once we cross a certain threshold, there will be certain types of work that will simply no longer be viable for humans. It won't ever come back and the pool of work for humans will continue to get smaller and smaller at an exponentially faster rate.

...but I can also see where it is the total and complete destruction of society.

How?

China and its Social Credit system should be a warning for those looking at UBI

What's the correlation between these two?

0
0
0.000
avatar

If the Social Credit system in China is working the way people have been showing on youtube, (I know not the best source), then if your social credit score is below a certain threshold then you can not travel, or purchase certain things, your consumer choices become restricted.

In a UBI system if it is run by a government organization, and there is nothing to prevent the government, what would stop them from saying you can no longer live where you live if you want to continue receiving your UBI? We are moving you into this city where there is public transport, and are taking your land and car to sell them to people not on a UBI?

It may not be the same thing as what happened in America in WW2, and people can say that it will never happen, but I believe it will. I do not think Americans have learned much from history and are thus willing to look past governmental oversteps such as the Japanese Internment Camps. Further back in American History there is the forced relocation of Native Americans. Americans learned nothing from those events either, as you can see it was repeated in WW2 with a forced relocation of a different group of people.

There is one thing Americans are good at, and that is turning a blind and accepting eye to the wrongs done by our government. If a government is involved in UBI, then that system is a potential new serf/slave system to those on it.

Just because something has happened in the past is no guarantee that it will recur in the future, if steps are taken to ensure that the possibility of a recurrence is limited.

China and its Social Credit system should be a warning for those looking at UBI

What's the correlation between these two?

The Social Credit System creates class or tiers of people. UBI will do the same thing. Both are controlled by Governments. Those were just a few of my thoughts on it and how I see it.

I do think with the change in the work force that this next one is going to be major and a stop gap measure will need to be in place. I think that there will always be replacement jobs for those that are lost.

Every change from one job skill set to the next needed job skill set has been wrought with doom and gloom, from farms, to factories, to internet, to the next revolutionary advance of mankind. We survived the industrial age, and we are surviving the communication age. Society, being made up of individuals, is capable of adapting. Governments are a little bit less adept at adapting than the people and society.

I would like to see a UBI system in place that works, but I think it will be highly unlikely in the near future.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Well I agree that the whole social credits system is fucked and terrible. I think when I read what you wrote though it reads as "Authoritarian Government" When you're talking about a social credits system and forcing people to do this or that.

My response to that would be, if we end up with an authoritarian government, which I agree is not off the table in these times, that that would spell the end of our society as we know it, I don't really feel like that would be a result of UBI.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Andrew Yang, in my personal opinion, is the best candidate running. He reveals actual issues, suggests actual solutions, and provides actual facts. He seem like the most honest, caring, and intelligent person running for office... Which I feel like is the exact reason why people are counting him out. Why do people fall for the big noisy fake blowhards over the honestly good people? Who knows.

Here's hoping we get a president Yang to fix our shit lol

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's because most people are still trusting the MSM which is probably the biggest threat to democracy of all the other ones.

0
0
0.000
avatar

True. How many times has MSNBC snubbed Yang's name on news reports now? 4 or 5 different fucking times?

It's so blatant, and that's what makes it so infuriating...

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was always under the illusion that creative jobs will have some sort of security as the machines take over. Originality and art something that can't come from the mind of machine but I confess I am wrong it is so interesting to see that many of the experiments and advancement in the AI are being explored in what it can do for create fields, it is all a bit scary really. Two Minute Papers is a good youtube channel to follow, if you haven't seen them.
What will this all mean for artists when the press of a button can iterate on ideas to create new ones? Time will tell and maybe even push art forward to find things that computers can never do.
I also follow American Politics and It is great that Andrew Yang is discussing these things but I don't think he has a hope of winning against the Democratic Party let alone trump. It is a pity because it is now more than ever that the world needs new ideas.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Steem can't do anything is there are no buyers (investors). Real authors don't need charity from @acydio or some random whale from "premine" period. They need a good platform like Medium. @Yanggang can't do anything that he promised if he doesn't take that money from others. Would you give me your money, sir? I don't have any plan to work because I'm too lazy and I hate rich people. 1000 USD monthly will be enough for a start. Of course, I will need much more money later.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Steem can't do anything is there are no buyers (investors). Real authors don't need charity from @acydio or some random whale from "premine" period. They need a good platform like Medium.

Steem is getting there. After Communities it will be ready for a lot more people. After SMT's anyone will be able to take their shot and the dependency will be off of Steemit.com eventually.

The government is already taking peoples money. The key is for them to do something with it that actually benefits the people of the country, instead of just making our military that's already 10x bigger than the next one, even bigger and bombing more people so companies can sell more bombs.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Imagine how much good a Community for the "Parents of Autistic Children" 50k strong, with collectively millions of SP could do.

calling @honoru

0
0
0.000
avatar

What is the value of good advice? How can we get high quality information and what is it worth?

0
0
0.000
avatar

I like him, he seems like a good guy and a great person to consider as a candidate. Unfortunately, he isn't part of the political machine much like Ron Paul wasn't. I would bet the farm that next november is gonna see Joe Biden in the showdown with Trump. I believe this was determined a long time ago and the debates and all this showmanship is just a waste of time. I am an incredibly pessimistic person though :P

0
0
0.000