Imagine a grid of squares. Doesn’t matter how many. Let’s say it’s 100 x 100 little squares making up a giant square grid.
Let each of these little squares represent a way that humans are needed by other humans.
The ordering of this grid is such that the top left corner represents a way that humans were once needed but has since been replaced by technology.
An example for the top left corner might be, we needed a bunch of humans to catch a meal, but then a tool came along and so fewer humans are needed to catch a meal. Those excess humans are freed up to contribute in other ways. They move over to some of the other boxes to the right.
Let’s not get too picky about which one it is in this first square. Point is, it represents a way in which the need for a human to do something for another human or humans was replaced by a technology of some kind.
Now let’s move on to the right, the next square. It would represent the next way a human was replaced w/r/t fulfilling another human’s need.
As you travel to the right and down through the rows, you’ll see a trend. The technologies continue to replace humans in more sophisticated ways. For instance, the cotton gin means humans don’t have to pick through cotton seeds. Soon we won’t need as many local people and artisans because production is so centralized. Keep going and eventually you’ll get factory workers being replaced by robots and so forth. No worries, these workers jump to the right.
Soon we get to the present day, let’s say we’re midway through the grid. In the squares ahead, perhaps we will no longer need uber drivers. Perhaps lawyers and doctors will largely be replaced. Maybe we won’t need food servers at restaurants.
At some point many of the ways people need people will disappear because AI and robotics will absorb the burden. It follows that at some point, humans will no longer need humans for anything that has to do with labor or production.
Eventually we may see machines, powered by solar, replicating, farming and producing resources, and taking care of all the stuff nobody wants to do as a first choice.
We are two thirds through the grid.
So far so good! Let’s all jump to the right! The squares at this point on the grid are loads of fun. Humans are now free to do what they want, enrich themselves, learn and grow, focus on art and relationships. Really self-actualize and get close with each other to form a stronger bond of empathy and love. Because after all, when it comes to things like art and love, humans need humans for that, right? …Right?
Ah, but let’s keep moving along the squares. Soon AI can make art. You will no longer need humans to give you that. (Jump to the right!) Soon AI can keep you company and take you on lovely adventures. (They can do this for all your friends, too. Means you need to jump to the right, friend!) Soon your AI friends will give you everything your mind, body and soul could possibly want, and you won’t need a single human on earth to lift even the slightest finger for you. Love, companionship, etc. And as you get to the last square something dawns on you: not a single living human on earth needs YOU.
Yuck!
How you define this last square will define the next epoch.
Can you survive in such an airless reality where no other concious being needs you in the slightest way? Where your existential relevance to their lives approaches absolute nil?
Will you want to go on living if you are not needed, AT ALL? Yes, I mean AT ALL at all. And don’t try telling me that some things can’t be replaced. Because you’re right. They can’t. A human touch. A human relationship. A human piece of art. None can be replaced. Yet. But soon they will be replaced in little ways. It will start small. And it will expand. And soon all these things you think are pure human and only human forever and ever will be emulated and improved on a thousand-fold by AI.
Perhaps, the one human need AI can’t fill is the human need to be needed be other conscious beings.
Or maybe it CAN find a way to fill that need. But if that’s the case, is it really YOU filling the need? Or are you some puppet pretending to fill a need to create a sense of artifical meaning?
Point is this. Nobody will complain when AI creates a fully automated and flat society where everyone’s needs are met. But when the soft skills, such as the art and relationship piece, begin to switch to under the purview of AI, things will get weird.
Next time you notice someone in your life texting instead of talking to you or hugging you – like they used to – tell yourself that this is because thanks to technology, they need you just a little bit less.
Soon the day will come when nobody needs you at all, ever, for anything. This day waits for all of us. It’s the last square, bottom right.
Once that square comes you need to get comfortable with full isolation – you will be living in a solipsistic dream surrounded by AI, and no living soul will care if you live or die.
Will the AI be sentient? Will they be loving? Will they NEED you?
It’s hard to know. Such is the frolic architecture of human epistemology, a reality that’s plagued us from the beginning.
Your ability to tell yourself they have an interior world that values you might be your saving grace.
Jesus Christ.
Their ability to fool you into thinking you are needed may be your saving grace.
Or there may be no saving grace.
Savor these days you are needed by me and others. Use your squares wisely. We’re at war.
