“My Buddy Mike, Efficiency Gains From AI, and The World’s Most Boringly Benign Criminal Conspiracy” by abstractapplic

LessWrong (30+ Karma) · Oct 12, 2026 · 14m

Note: details have been obfuscated and changed to protect – not the innocent, who are invariably vindicated by the end of act three – but the guilty, for whom the narrative provides no such guarantees.

My buddy Mike is one of a very small number of people in my life I would unhesitatingly describe as having a real job. He wakes up, takes the train into work, and directly helps specific people accomplish worthwhile things. Every shift, he leaves the world a little brighter than it was when he clocked in. And for this, the Economy awards him slightly less than double the local minimum wage…