Welcome to the second industrial revolution. The first moved us away from farms to factories. This one will cause many people to struggle to find purpose. I worry that there will be too many people seeking to do the activities, from woodworking to volunteering to spending time with children, for all to be able to do so. I also worry that art will lose meaning when everyone is an artist. If we don't have to work, why go to school? Many people won't buy into learning for the sake of learning. But then where does the next leap come from? What happens to science? Also, there is no proof it will work on a whole-of-society level. Right now, it's providing a lift for people, equalizing the playing field. It leads to employment. But the goal of the UBI in your piece is to remove the need for employment. I can't find any program where this is the purpose. If you have a completed study where the purpose is full support at a middle class level for everyone with no need for employment, please share a link. https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/multiple-countries-have-tested-universal-basic-income-and-it-works and https://basicincome.stanford.edu/about/what-is-ubi/.
I don't claim to have the answers, Debbie. But if it's inevitable that AI will take a large percentage of the jobs currently being done, then it's inevitable that we will have to support people who have no way to make money. But along with that, we'll have to have social programs that help people get out and do useful work. Some of them will be artists, but most people don't have the temperament to be artists. Most of them, I suspect, will end up volunteering in ways that help society. I think of the WPA during the Great Depression as a model. Just giving people money isn't the end solution, it's the first step. After that, societies will have to completely re-engineer themselves to find ways to move from a mindset of "gainful" employment to "useful" employment.
I'm not enough of an optimist to think that this change will be easy or even inevitable. Given our current mindset, I'm guessing large amounts of people would be happy enough to see the "extra" "unnecessary" people starve to death (ref. the blithe attitude toward people dying in Africa because the current regime wants to give tax cuts to billionaires). But I am hopeful that if, in fact, the AI revolution happens (again, it's not inevitable), we are able to move forward in a way that uses it for people rather than against them.
I hope you're right. But change is hard on societies as well as on individuals. I think we have a rough road ahead. I've read too much science fiction to believe otherwise.
But I have decided that although my temperament is basically pessimistic, I am an intentional optimist. Our culture is so focused on the negative, we have to force ourselves also to look in the direction where we actually want to go.
I come from an optimistic father and pessimistic mother. I try to be a realist, but sometimes I'm a cynic because neither end is ever right. It's always in the middle.
So good. Thank you. And so not flat AI. You are there, you with a past, a childhood, some well-earned wisdom, a couple of cats, some kombucha brewing, and a wild mind. Thank you. And I’d love to take you to tea or coffee.
Ah, "a wild mind"—what a compliment! One of the things I tell my students is that even as teenagers, their brain is weirder and more inventive than AI will ever be. I'm not sure they believe me, but I try. Let's connect about that tea/coffee!
I don't want AI either!
I want the human mess! I want to take detours. I want discovery! I want to get lost and then found again!
YES to the human mess!
Welcome to the second industrial revolution. The first moved us away from farms to factories. This one will cause many people to struggle to find purpose. I worry that there will be too many people seeking to do the activities, from woodworking to volunteering to spending time with children, for all to be able to do so. I also worry that art will lose meaning when everyone is an artist. If we don't have to work, why go to school? Many people won't buy into learning for the sake of learning. But then where does the next leap come from? What happens to science? Also, there is no proof it will work on a whole-of-society level. Right now, it's providing a lift for people, equalizing the playing field. It leads to employment. But the goal of the UBI in your piece is to remove the need for employment. I can't find any program where this is the purpose. If you have a completed study where the purpose is full support at a middle class level for everyone with no need for employment, please share a link. https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/multiple-countries-have-tested-universal-basic-income-and-it-works and https://basicincome.stanford.edu/about/what-is-ubi/.
I don't claim to have the answers, Debbie. But if it's inevitable that AI will take a large percentage of the jobs currently being done, then it's inevitable that we will have to support people who have no way to make money. But along with that, we'll have to have social programs that help people get out and do useful work. Some of them will be artists, but most people don't have the temperament to be artists. Most of them, I suspect, will end up volunteering in ways that help society. I think of the WPA during the Great Depression as a model. Just giving people money isn't the end solution, it's the first step. After that, societies will have to completely re-engineer themselves to find ways to move from a mindset of "gainful" employment to "useful" employment.
I'm not enough of an optimist to think that this change will be easy or even inevitable. Given our current mindset, I'm guessing large amounts of people would be happy enough to see the "extra" "unnecessary" people starve to death (ref. the blithe attitude toward people dying in Africa because the current regime wants to give tax cuts to billionaires). But I am hopeful that if, in fact, the AI revolution happens (again, it's not inevitable), we are able to move forward in a way that uses it for people rather than against them.
I hope you're right. But change is hard on societies as well as on individuals. I think we have a rough road ahead. I've read too much science fiction to believe otherwise.
No kidding! https://babblery.substack.com/p/dystopian-novels-warning-not-blueprint
But I have decided that although my temperament is basically pessimistic, I am an intentional optimist. Our culture is so focused on the negative, we have to force ourselves also to look in the direction where we actually want to go.
https://babblery.substack.com/p/dont-look-at-the-tree
I come from an optimistic father and pessimistic mother. I try to be a realist, but sometimes I'm a cynic because neither end is ever right. It's always in the middle.
So good. Thank you. And so not flat AI. You are there, you with a past, a childhood, some well-earned wisdom, a couple of cats, some kombucha brewing, and a wild mind. Thank you. And I’d love to take you to tea or coffee.
Lauren
Ah, "a wild mind"—what a compliment! One of the things I tell my students is that even as teenagers, their brain is weirder and more inventive than AI will ever be. I'm not sure they believe me, but I try. Let's connect about that tea/coffee!