When jobs disappear, how will we survive?
Everyone worries about being replaced by AI, but we seem to have misunderstood one thing: we often worry about the replacement of "productivity," while ignoring the irreplaceable nature of "humanity."
Here's a summary of Dan Koe's insightful article on the future of work; these points might resonate with you:
- On being replaced: The elegance of the future lies not in the confrontation between humans and machines, but in the division of labor: silicon-based machines polish the rough edges of necessities so that carbon-based machines can be sublimated into meaning.
- On scarcity: Once everyone can instantly do something, it instantly becomes worthless. Human perspectives cannot be commodified, therefore they will always have a premium.
- On the exchange test: If replacing you doesn't change the work's validity, then you will be replaced. If the work is effective because you did it, that's your advantage.
- On the limitations of AI: AI can copy anything, but it cannot copy what happens next until it has already happened. AI is always chasing your past position, not your present position.
- About the future of work
We hate queuing at the DMV because it's just a means to get things done. But we'll pay a fortune for a tearjerker. When it comes to speed and efficiency, leave it to the machines; when it comes to experience, drama, and humanity, that's our territory.
