Everyone is worried about whether or not AI will replace them.
But I can’t help but think that there is something about the human experience that can’t be replaced.
I can’t help but think that humans will still want to work. That is, they will still want to create something, share it with another, and be recognized for their contribution by receiving some form of currency in return. This is a fundamental aspect of human nature, but it’s unfortunate that “work” has become dirty word stripped of meaning as productivity has become our God.
I am less concerned with industrial factory-style work being automated. We all know what that soulless pit does to a person.
I am much more concerned with creative work.
What will that future look like?
Will money become obsolete?
Will AGI write all prose and create all art?
If struggle, status, and curiosity are the generators of meaning, and AGI promises to rid us of such, what do we do?
What is the one thing that AGI can’t replace, if anything?
In a world without scarcity, how do* you* become the scarce good?
I want to share 6 ideas on the future of work, the skills and traits you must optimize for as a creative, and ultimately how to live a meaningful life in a future that feels daunting. I’ll share both my own thoughts and theories that I believe hold relevant weight.
And if you are a creative who wants to know if AI will ever replace your work, this is for you.
Let’s begin.
Meaning has become a scarce good.
It’s not hard to see that.
But to understand how we got into this mess, a little history lesson helps.
You see, reality develops toward greater complexity over time. When things become too complex or chaotic, a new ordered structure (or a new whole to envelop the parts) must emerge.
A few simple examples:
Letter → Word → Sentence → Paragraph
Atom → Cell → Molecule → Organism
Matter → Life → Mind → Spirit
This is how reality is structured.
When it comes to meaning, I want to focus on how societies have evolved, which can be seen in two ways:
1) The techno-economic base (or dominant mode of production) of past societies and specific technology used.
Foraging → Horticultural → Agrarian → Industrial → Informational → Whatever comes next (Intelligence?)
2) The dominant worldview and value structure of people within those societies (their meaning-making system).
Premodern → Modern → Postmodern → Whatever comes next (Metamodern?)
For brevity, we can speedrun the first few.
Foraging societies were hunter-gatherers. Easy. In horticultural societies, men were the hunters and women tended small plots. In agrarian societies, food came from large scale farming, enabling massive surpluses, allowing men to work less so they could use their new time to explore, discover, and conquer.
The technologies of these societies developed from: