What comes next?
So, AI has arrived! The big hoohah is here. And now what? Where does this leave us?
In some ways this is the beginning. Work has been a form of distraction, meaning, but also an arduous form of slavery we’ve put ourselves through.
We have much yet to discover. Scientific breakthroughs. But also our ancestry, archeology. It’s everywhere. Right under our feet are countless beautiful artifacts that can tell us stories of different lives and worldviews.
About ourselves. We hardly know ourselves, let alone others. Perhaps there’s now the time for real healing and therapy to happen. For us to learn how to communicate again, if not better than ever before. A telepathy at the feeling and soul or energy level. Probably a level of psychedelic exploration as well.
Having children will probably come back into fashion. Perhaps the birth rate returns to normal. It gives us purpose, meaning, an identity, and we don’t want robots to raise our children. It’s a beautiful, profound thing and it’s automation-proof!
I can see a return to the more timeless (or ancient) aspects of life. Being better in touch with who and how we really are, as humans, rather than attempting to make ourselves into robots. Paying more attention to relations, the seasons, traditions, religion, family. These things all begin to matter more once work disappears.
Perhaps a rebuilding of society — of the norms that suit everybody. Respect, a return of public behavioural norms.
Maybe letters will come back. Real proper ones. Not generated content but that slow, considered and highly personal hobby of communicating with loved ones. Men and women of letters.
About the mysteries and magics of the universe. There are so many bizarre things left yet to unravel. So much we cannot know just yet. But, like a kaleidoscope, we can snatch abstract glimpses of the nature of reality. There are some real clues and those are only a starting point. A thread to pull.
We have to fall in love with doing and being and becoming again. There’s all this reality left to explore and encounter, we’ve allowed ourselves to become passive consumers of content. Which is fine in the right doses. But the proxy of anything will never match its reality. AI can never climb a mountain or swim in a lake for us.