Many are theorizing what could happen once we reach a post-AGI world. At this point, it is open to speculation with no truly defined answers. Some believe that ASI will not be long after AGI. Others are not so sure.
However, this unfolds, there is the idea that human labor is going to be affected. We are already, in the view of many, seeing the early stages of jobs being replaced by AI. The coding world is being upended although to what degree is still unknown.
It is likely that AI systems simply keep improving over the next couple years. This was the trend for more than a decade and we have no reason to believe it will stop. There are certainly barriers such as a major energy question. However, a lot of bright minds are working on solutions.
Getting back to the human aspect of things, what happens when jobs are automated? Where does this leave people?
Society still refuses to answer the question of what will people do in a post-AGI world. Overall, most are simply ignoring the question. This is true for our leaders from every walk of life.
There are a few technology developers or think tanks that are addressing the issue. Periodically, we will come across an article discussing the impending issue. Of course, it quickly becomes buried, only to see a few more appear a year later.
I started touching upon this subject a few years back. In that time, little was done. We saw major advancements in AI to the point where a forecast is now looking like reality. It is no longer an isolated voice or two who mention the potential job losses. In other words, the chorus is growing.
To bring attention is the first order of business. After that, however, people need to offer up solutions. The default seems to be that governments will offer UBI as the cure. While I believe this will occur, it will be done by political leaders to remain relevant. In a post-AGI world, how much are governments even needed especially with blockchain?
Universal basic compute (UBC) is one solution that is starting to make sense. As we enter the agentic age, this might better address the issues.
There is an old parable that talks about giving a man a fish as compared to teaching him to fish. The former feeds him once whereas the latter does for a lifetime.
Could this be the answer to the question we are going to face?
UBI provides money. It is a one off. Naturally, the idea is that governments will keep this going. However, as we are finding out, there is a limit to where debt levels can go before that route is turned off.
Money can generate more money if invested. This is not going to be the case with most people since it is basic amounts to provide sustenance. Therefore, this option is simply putting food on the table.
UBC could be thought of as teaching a man to fish.
If compute is the center of the economy, in a post-AGI world, then providing people with access to this could allow them to maintain their place in the economy.
In other words, people could create the wealth building tools that will be necessary to remain relevant and capture a piece of the economic output.
To achieve this end, we will need to see global infrastructure that offers compute to billions of people across the world. Right now, we see the GPUs produced being swallowed up by a smaller number of firms. Big Tech is dominating.
Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) could offer a solution. Many are talking about the idea of linking distributed computing resources into a cohesive, global network of GPUs that can be utilized for machine learning and other high-performance computing tasks. This could be coupled with blockchain to utilize idle computing power from across the planet.
Whatever the eventual solution, the world needs to start talking about this.
