The wonks call it “AI job displacement”… but let’s just call a spade a spade: With the coming wave of autonomous AI software agents, combined with humanoid robot workers, there will be a massive leap in human unemployment. Ironically, it will probably affect the most industrialized and “developed” nations first. As mentioned all across this platform, the effect will be nothing short of seismic.
After much meditation and conversation on the matter, I’ve decided that there are a few really simple things that humans can do, both individually and collectively, to “dampen the blow” and to turn this existential challenge into a singular opportunity, pretty much unprecedented in the entire history of our civilization on earth. So: Ready, Humans?
Here’s the Plan for Humanity:
I. get Outside
- breath the clean, unprocessed air. feel the wind in your hair. hear the song of the birds.
- look up in wonder at the magical clouds in the infinite sky.
II. get Physical
- You have a body. One of the greatest miracles on earth. Self-powered, high-speed, with insane flexibility, mobility and dexterity. Use it!
- Find out your physical limits. Run as fast as you can. Jump as high as you can. Then go further.
- Engage ALL your senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, sound…
- explore the spectrum of sensation from pleasure to pain and everywhere in between.
III. minimize the time you spend staring into Black Mirrors
- we’re talking about all those shiny smooth dark glass surfaces that light up with utterly addicting pixels, pictures, games and videos that you just can’t peel your bored eyes away from…
- televisions, monitors, laptop screens, game console screens, smartphone screens, smartwatch screens, and… god forbid, smartglasses and “goggles”).
IV. maximize the amount of time you spend in the Real World
- in focused, authentic face to face conversations with friends, family and strangers
- in natural environments (beaches, lakes, rivers, mountains, forests, deserts, etc)
- in quiet solitude listening to and witnessing the real world around you, with all digital distractions (phones, earbuds) silenced
- listening to / playing real live music (real instruments played by real people in real time)
V. Choose to flex your Creative muscles vs. your Consumption muscles (such as “Netflix & Chill,” etc.)
- Recognize that every one of us is born capable of the Creative Act.
- This can be singing, drawing, writing, dancing, whatever it is that brings you joy. We all have vocal chords, we all have bodies that can move, and most of us can obtain a piece of paper and a pen.
- If you haven’t yet, pick up a copy of The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.
- Transform every moment of your life into a creative act!
VI. Be Vigilant / FactCheck / seek the base motives
- Along with job displacement, there is about to be an explosion of media, colloquially known as “deep fakes”… but there will be entirely new genres of seductive media.
- realise that all media has an agenda. some may be to vote for a particular candidate, support a certain cause, or most commonly: to move money from your pocket into corporate coffers.
- choose which media you consume very carefully.
- deconstruct the media that you choose to consume, and try and understand why it has been targeted to you, and what ideas it is intending to plant in your mind.
- once you see the media for what it is, you are in a much better position to evaluate how you wish to integrate its messages.
- Media is food for the brain: You are what you Eat.
- …including this very blog.
prompt: /imagine: “best possible humans”
engine: MidJourney v6