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>do any of my hard work actually matter? Yes... basically in life, you have to find the definition of "to matter" that you can strongly believe in. Otherwise e
by npteljes 1y ago
>do any of my hard work actually matter?
Yes... basically in life, you have to find the definition of "to matter" that you can strongly believe in. Otherwise everything feels aimless, the very life itself.
The rest of what you ponder in your comment is the same. And I'd like to add that baselines shifted a lot over the years of civilization. I like to think about one specific example: painkillers. Painkillers were not used during medical procedures in a widespread manner until some 150 years ago, maybe even later. Now, it's much less horrible to participate in those procedures, for everyone involved really, and also the outcomes are better just for this factor - because the patients moves around less while anesthetized.
But even this is up for debate. All in all, it really boils down to what the individual feels like it's a worthy life. Philosophy is not done yet.
- amarant 1y agoWell, from a societal point of view, meaningful work would be work that is necessary to either maintain or push that baseline. Perhaps my initial estimate of 5% of the workforce was a bit optimistic, say 20% of current workforce necessary to have food, healthcare, and maybe a few research facilities focused on improving all of the above?
- npteljes 1y agoI'm sure we could organize it if that would be the goal.
- amarant 1y agoRight? So what's the current goal, and why is it better than this one?
- npteljes 1y agoPower itself seems to be the goal, and the reasons for it is human DNA I think. I have doubts that we can build anything different than this (on a sufficiently long run).
- amarant 1y agoPower might be a goal for individuals, but surely it's not the goal for society as a whole? Does society as a whole even have a goal currently? I don't really think it does. Like do ideologists even exist today? I wish society was working towards some kind of idea of utopia, but I'm not convinced we're even trying for that. Are we?
- npteljes 1y agoI don't feel like we have goals as a society either.
- nradov 1y agoNo, it would be impossible to organize. Planned economies have always failed at that scale, and always will. AI won't change that reality.
- npteljes 1y agoI'm pretty sure it's not impossible, but rather just improbable, because of how human nature works. In other words, we are not incentivized to do that, and that is why we don't do that, and even when we did, it always fell apart. You are very right that AI will not change this. As neither did any other productivity improvement in the past (directly).
- nradov 1y agoIt's impossible, and not just because of human nature. Even if humans were more cooperative or altruistic, it's impossible to plan for disruptive innovations.