In addition to what you have taken away from the rest of the thread you must listen to Kanye west discography chronologically starting at the college dropout and ending at kids see ghosts. I know about his character now, ignore that.
Here’s a take I haven’t read yet: I have no sympathy to offer you.
Living organisms probably started as some self replicating RNA. Already a beautiful, complex creation of our Mother Earth.
After eons of constant struggle for survival and resources, miraculously the consciousness emerged. Our kind, of millions of distinct species is the sole avatar able to perceive just about every aspect our planet has to offer AND reflect on them and our own existence.
Tens of thousands of years of more struggle, each generation of our kin building on the teachings of generations past; from existing as specks roaming the face of the earth at the mercy of Mother Nature, to organizing as civilizations, and finally building robust systems that supply billions of people with necessities, give a voice to the people and escape serfdom and slavery (a process that’s still ongoing).
A quirk of our capitalist system is that it __allows for__ and __benefits from__ individuals like yourself who can work extraordinarily hard to create lots of value. And naturally, you are rewarded with the profound ability to DO ANYTHING YOU WANT, HAVE ANYTHING YOU WANT, GO ANYWHERE YOU WANT (of the external aspects of your life). You have conquered all of existence.
You like climbing mountains. Imagine Everest but 1000 times higher. Imagine every living thing ever blindly climbing up with all their might, and their offspring spawns from their corpse when they die. Some fall. What you did was make it to the very PEAK of this impossibly, unimaginably large mountain of existence. You look out and you see nothing (because it’s so large, of course). Please, it’s okay to be confused. Don’t be scared. Take your time. You earned it. Don’t be upset that there’s nothing above for you to keep climbing. You have some options. Lay at the top forever (boring, lonely). Or, try to bring a few people up with you. Or, make it your mission to help as many people scale higher as possible. But what I think you might need, is to come back down - give up what you have or detach your self from the idea of being at the top. Much love brother, I think you are pretty cool. I would love to chat if you are down, I’ll send you an email.
Thank you for the thoughtful response. I tried to limit my writing while keeping the core ideas true as I’m not going to write a multi page paper for a HN comment. I agree, automation alone will not bring equality to the masses. As I see it, it should go something like this: automation scales to the point where it’s pushing people out of jobs. This scares the working class. It gives them a real reason to go out and force change (hint: the working class can force change. They just have to want the change so much that it overcomes the many roadblocks in place to prevent them from making change. Partisan politics, big corporation lobbying, big media outlets all stand in the way of this, but I believe all of them can fall to the pressure of the core change making machine that is the American democratic system). Now this is far out there but here is what I think: My hope is this ‘movement’ will have deep enough considerations to the future of civilization to be able to overturn the outdated capitalist system and replace it with a neo capitalist system that should essentially rob large companies of systems essential to the country. There should be an upper limit to the net worth one can obtain. Think like this: Amazon slashes 80 percent of its workforce through automation. Then it is clear that they have created a system largely self sustaining that will suck up many more times wealth than it will give back to the population, and this wealth will condense into the owners of Amazon. Then the government should essentially strip the owners of their share of profits the company makes. They can keep their power within the company. They can keep their roles and they still manage the company for a hefty, hefty salary. But every dollar of profit over what it takes to keep the company running and pay the owners well will be evenly distributed to the American people because otherwise society will collapse. I know this reads more like a fiction novel than anything but I think the scale of problems that we face today require such thinking. I appreciate your willingness to comment and think critically about the future of society because this is something we need more of. We need more people to a. Believe in a vision of a future where we progress as a people - b. Believe they have the power to advance our society toward such a lofty goal. Because if enough of us believe so, it becomes attainable.
1. I used America as an example because I am American and that’s just how I think - no doubt the path could be blazed by other countries but I want to see my country survive
2. I’m sure there are many many technical issues with my vision of the future to be solved which would require many great minds to combine forces and analyze history. The question is will such an effort ever materialize, or will humanity be forever chained down by biology and circumstance? I would like to think it’s possible because as an American I see the formation of our government and constitution as possibly the greatest triumph in human history. Democracy was a revolution. But to progress we will soon need another revolution about equal in weight.
This is a perfect manifestation of our social cultural dynamics at play. If an employee comes in hungover on a Friday, it usually means they lived a little on Thursday night. But to think that ‘hungover employees’ is a force of evil is to completely misunderstand the greater human experience we all share. We are all playing in this game of economics to varying degrees of immersion. Ideally, the economy is just a labor focusing engine that puts people in the right place at the right time to produce the maximum efficiency in terms of what they provide to society. But the car that this engine drives is one that is meant expand and deepen the human experience by keeping people healthy for longer and giving people back more free time than ever before to explore themselves and the world. But some people don’t see it this way. Most ceos and founders are able to impose their deeply flawed worldview onto society as a whole by accruing capital at the cost of everything else. They benefit hugely by dragging us as far into ‘the game’ as they can and pitting us against each other. The only solution I can see is one where machines and automation can carry out all the essential functions needed to feed and care for a large population. Then everyone is given a universal basic income and the freedom to choose what they want to do with their lives. I’d like to believe most people will immerse themselves in the more human hobbies like arts and sports instead of wasting their lives away without purpose. Maybe I’m just hopeful
I will never understand how Bryan Johnson is helping anybody. Ok, if he lives longer then what? Do we all have to do what he does (impossible)? How is he contributing at all to science? He is a walking confounding variable. Even if he succeeds in living a long time, humanity won’t be able to take anything away from it.