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Ah, good old "outsource non-vital parts, so you have more time for yourself (sic)". How much of your life can be outsourced, before it's no longer your life? H
by Radim 8y ago
Ah, good old "outsource non-vital parts, so you have more time for yourself (sic)".
How much of your life can be outsourced, before it's no longer your life? How much of a man still makes a man?
Edgar Allan Poe had a funny little story about that and technology, all the way back in 1840:
https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/tom2t032.htm https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/tom2t032.htm
- tptacek 8y agoLook around your living space. Make a list of the things you do every day as part of your daily routine. Think about a person living in the middle ages, and how your routine differs from theirs. How many outsourcing relationships do you benefit from, compared to them? Do you have more or less agency than that other person?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Radim 8y agoHidden in your questions is a presupposition of a well-defined "you", a human essence that decides/benefits as an indivisible whole. As that EA Poe story skilfully anticipated, and as our modernity puts more and more into practice, "you" is just a chimera, a leaky abstraction. It appears the questions of tomorrow will be around "what's the entity exercising agency" more than "how much agency". Surrogate matchmakers are but a taste of things to come.
- androidgirl 8y agoAll of it, honestly, if that's what you want. There's no hard and fast rules on what makes an experience worth living. If automating and outsourcing everything makes you happy, do it! Life is short.