Automated capitalism and it's implications
Automated corporations (drone corporations)
If we look at a probable evolutionary trajectory for corporations there is evidence that as technology becomes more sophisticated we will see the rise of the automated corporation.
Thinking of the "drones" metaphorically speaking as automated corporations of some sort can help readers to make sense of how voluntary basic capital, voluntary basic income, and reputation, can converge in an automated capitalist economy where humans are supported primarily by automated corporations (drone corporations).
To have a full understanding would require thinking of the humans as inherent shareholders, and the human is maintained in the loop on a community or tribal level by programmatically authorizing a percentage of shares to all verified humans, and the drone simply gives dividends (profit sharing) to each human.
Reputation
Human beings by instinct usually want to maintain a good reputation in their community, drones can be programmed quite easily to care about the social consensus of the network. The social consensus of a network would be how drones maintain good reputations. Drones could profit as corporations do now, but support humans as inherent shareholders. This would transition the human labourer from being the "worker" into being the shareholder over time. The humans during this transition will be encouraged to pay voluntary transaction taxes to support their selected community.
Voluntary basic income
Voluntary basic income is facilitated through transaction taxes which both humans and drones pay. In order for the humans and drones to maintain membership in their communities, some which may be exclusive, they must agree to the rules of the community which may include paying transaction taxes. This would be similar to the fair tax, the same tax which many libertarians endorse, and it would be a tax on every transaction which means it would apply to drones as well as humans. As the economy becomes more automated the number of humans who pay transaction taxes may become far outnumbered by the number of drones paying the tax which means after a certain threshold the economic activity of the drones may fully support the welfare of humanity.
Voluntary basic capital
Voluntary basic capital can leverage the evolution of the economy from a human based employment economy into an automated economy. Voluntary basic capital can help human beings make the transition from employment-based income to investment-based income. Voluntary basic capital promotes capitalism by making all humans a stakeholder.
Smart corps (automated corporations)
Smart drones or automated corporations are the linchpin which could make voluntary basic income and voluntary basic capital economically viable. Typically we have UAVs which are unmanned aerial vehicles, and drones are usually recognized as flying robots. In my metaphor I use the phrase "smart drone" to mean a robot which is programmed to profit and which may in fact be self owned, partially owned, or part of a swarm. An automated corporation is a corporation which does not need any permanently employed human labor to run itself and which can profit. Smart drones also known as automated corporations may from time to time contract human labor for specific tasks such as for instance a self driving car which requires a human to repair it, but it keeps it's profits as it's own just as a vending machine would do.
Some memorable points
- Reputation is the mechanism which enforces responsible behavior. In the case of human beings it will be inclusion in a community, where they cost of their continued inclusion is to agree to the social consensus of that community. No community is obligated to accept anyone as a member who does not meet their qualifications, and if maintaining a membership badge requires they give to charity, or pay a transaction tax, then just as with Bitcoin, or with Proof of Stake, the transaction fees as a price of membership.
- Drones may also seek to maintain reputation credits, and anyone will be able to rate drones or entire networks of drones on reputation. A human friendly drone could be the drone which is certified by a community of shareholders.
- Transaction taxes are a possible mechanism of producing basic income. In the near term the majority of transaction taxes may be paid for by human beings. In the long term the majority of transaction taxes may be paid for by drones, by non-human labor sources. Examples of drone corporations may include self driving delivery vehicles which are paid by a human to delivery groceries, but like a corporation these self driving delivery vehicles may collect profits from their economic activities, and these profits could be used to secure parking spaces, repairs, and to provide an equivalent of dividends to a community of humans.
- Dividends would be the result of the basic capital ownership rights that all humans in the community could have. The basic capital approach would be pure capitalism, philosophically compatible with anarcho-capitalism, and mainstream libertarianism. Shareholders in these automated corporations also known as drone corps or smart corps could benefit from the rise of the automated economy.
Automated capitalism is an illustration of a society which can be built where all humans are supported by automation, where the cost of living decreases as the cost of automation decreases and AI is made ubiquitous.
References
Are we ready for companies that run themselves? – David Morris – Aeon. (2014, January). Retrieved from http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/are-we-ready-for-companies-that-run-themselves/
Kelion, L. (2015, February). Could driverless cars own themselves? - BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30998361
Pangburn, D. (2015). The Humans Who Dream Of Companies That Won't Need Us | Fast Company | Business + Innovation. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3047462/the-humans-who-dream-of-companies-that-wont-need-them
This post is certified as from the original author by way of public keys posted at these locations: http://darkai.org/?p=527
and https://steemit.com/steemit/@dana-edwards/private-communication-with-me-via-pgp-for-those-who-know-and-understand
"I think the fact that within the bitcoin universe an algorithm replaces the functions of [the government] ... is actually pretty cool. I am a big fan of Bitcoin" - Al Gore
It's hard for me to wrap my mind around everything you've said, but at the same time I believe an increasing amount of ai and innovative thinkers like those at Google and Elon musk who have knowledge far beyond what I could come up with, it seems possible. If I'm correct in assessing your post, humans would no longer work for wages but derive value from drone corporations? Fascinating article and how many times have we seen Warren buffet's quote ring true a highly respected man or women with a great family and reputation lose it for one moment of a lack of judgement and will forever be known by that shortcoming. Embezzlement or many other reputation breakers come to light and ruin what may have been a successful business for years. Mind is in overdrive from trying to imagine the future though 😀
Yes that is part of what I'm seeing. I'm seeing wage based labor being phased out. I'm seeing perhaps out of necessity that income will become separate from employment. This means income streams will have to exist but it might not be "employment-based" income. Drone corporations would basically be partially or perhaps fully automated companies, which exist as software in the cloud, on a blockchain, or in general over the Internet.
At first they were called DACs but then the name was changed to DAO. Wikipedia mentions fully automated business entity. All of these are variations on the same concept because different people all see the evolutionary trajectory toward that concept. So there could be for example self-owned DACs which are self owned because the automations or DAC itself bought back shares from the original creators until it owns most or all of itself.
From that point the human beings would be contractors to it. Voluntary basic capital would simply be a rule which says DACs must give back 10% or some agreed upon amount as tribute to the human species that created it. Over time humans will have to pay less and less tax because an automated society would run itself and the robots would pay the taxes on our behalf. Robots don't care about being taxed at 90% but we humans do care.
Very well written and thought of article. Don't you think steemit somehow fits the model of the reputation mechanism being run by, to a certain extent "drones" (algorithms)
When I wrote this article it was perhaps a year ago and Steem didn't even exist. Now that it does exist it is relevant to Steem which is why I post it on Steemit. This article is really only a brief philosophically oriented piece rather than getting into the nitty gritty technical details but if you have a technical mind I'm sure you can piece it together how it could be done.
Steemit could be a platform to make some of this possible. Steemit is a blockchain community, meaning a community supported by a blockchain. Steem Power does pay a sort of dividend in a round about way so yes you could build bots on top of Steem and these bots could acquire Steem Power by providing value to the community and in the end the price of Steem could go up. So yes it's possible over Steem.
But if you're thinking about it in the Internet of Things way, with more sophisticated AI, then have a look at Tauchain because you need a lot of security and an ability to do intelligent agents safely. Tauchain is being designed from the ground up to have an architecture to handle billions of dollars in a smart contract while Ethereum was designed primarily for experimenting.
I do believe there is a futuristic model in your article, and that you should, if you believe in it, find way to implement it. I am afraid I don't understand everything you proposed, but I can see a similarity between your model, and some of what exists today. I would say none of that exist today goes the full scope of what you propose, but bit and peaces.
The issue with AI, is that no matter how intelligent a system can be, it will also lack the emotional factor, which counts for a lot when it comes to decision making.
I will look into the links of you articles, I am somehow fascinated by the idea :)
Well if we look at corporations we consider them persons? We could look at AI as electronic persons? In either case, corporations are like machines and they exist to bring profit to their shareholders. DACs would be very similar.
But the difference is that a drone or DAC which is self owned could eventually profit for it's own sake and then what? Then we humans would have to program it to pay taxes to humanity as a whole. This would be a source of the basic income in the form of a tribute from the AI to the humans.
And would these corporations be commonwealth or privately owned ? Would we have a moral obligation towards their employees, who are mostly "robots" if they ever start showing signs of real emotional intelligence (like in the movie AI) ? And what if, in their rise to intelligence, the machine simply refuse to share their earned wealth with humans?
I had in my mind the example of trading companies mostly run buy bots, they analyze the market faster, and more accurately, know when to buy, and when to sell, so the human involvement in such companies can be reduced to zero.
I can't answer that because it depends on what the community decides. They can be owned or unowned. They can be privately owned or owned by the commonwealth in which case all citizens would get a dividend from it. I cannot tell you what people will decide but I would suggest to try all of them and see.
As far as strong AI goes and emotional intelligence, if you don't program robots to suffer then they'll not have any emotions or suffering. If you program robots to be happy slaving away serving humanity then they'll be happy to do that. If you're talking about artificial general intelligence then I would say that goes beyond what anyone can reasonably understand or try to predict but if a robot is able to act as if it's conscious and enough people start acting as if it's conscious then eventually we'll have to treat it as if it's conscious.