Tag Archive

Welcome, Job-Destroying Robots

By dreeves

Let me first emphasize that I’m not talking about the deeper question of superintelligence and what happens when robots can do anything a human can do. This is about the (relatively) more immediate question: What happens when robots can perform any unskilled labor much more cheaply than humans? My answer is that we’ll need a good social safety... »

Living the Robot-Mediated Life

By dreeves

It turns out people are pretty morbidly fascinated by Bethany Soule’s and my auction-based lifestyle. After Bethany’s Messy Matters article, “Love and/or Money,” it was »

Yootles Postmortem

By dreeves

I introduced the social currency (or scrip) Yootles in 2006 with the (needless to say, quixotic) goal of changing the social norms about money. We had two specific reasons for an alternative currency: We wanted to run prediction markets and needed a way around anti-gambling laws in the US Many people find the idea of using money... »

For Love and/or Money: Financial Autonomy in Marriage

By Bethany Soule

This is a guest post by Bethany Soule with assistance from Daniel Reeves. Prescript: We realize how crazy this all sounds! Nonetheless, we’re perfectly serious, and do actually pay each other to put our kids to bed and whatnot. We think we have quite clever mechanisms for deciding who does what and keeping things... »

The Irrationality of Rationing

By Sharad Goel

More than two weeks after the largest Atlantic hurricane on record hit the Eastern Seaboard, the bridges and tunnels have opened, the subways are running, and a degree of normalcy has succeeded the initial panic and confusion. But the gas lines persist. In an effort to shorten these sometimes absurdly long lines, New Jersey Governor... »