A world without work; should we stop learning?
With humanoids, physical work will be a choice. The big question to ask now is - do we really need it?
Recently at a presentation on artificial intelligence hosted by Tesla, techpreneur Elon Musk said that he is working on creating a Tesla Bot to do ‘dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks so that humans don't have to’. Quite a profound thought there - imagine humanoids doing those things that you felt were unnecessary or time consuming. He then went on to say that ‘in the future, physical work will be a choice.’ Now that got me thinking quite a few things. Those who have been dismissing his dream, thinking it would happen in some distant future must know that bots (automation) are already occupying our worlds through cell phone, television, smart electronics and that Alexa or Google that sits on your table. Several stock markets are run by robots, human cashiers are replaced by self-service kiosks and driverless cars will be here in no time. Adding to that, we had Swedish pop band ABBA announce that their upcoming concert would be a virtual livestream that uses motion capture technology to make their digital avatars – Abbatars, as they call it - look younger and in all their 1970s glory, something that will change the future of live concerts.
Believe it or not. The future is here.
I remember speaking of this not too long ago in one of my posts of how the workplace would be reimagined with automation and 3D version avatars. While the pandemic made virtual meets mainstream, Facebook in no time launched Horizon Workrooms with high-tech features like mixed-reality desk, remote desktop streaming, video conferencing integration, and the new Oculus Avatars for a different kind of productivity experience. Soon enough, other organizations will come out with similar or better products and solutions and your next meeting could actually be attended by your impeccable looking avatar (why groom, right?).
Losing the joy of hustle
For the long run, Musk - like many other socio-economists thinks there will need to be a Universal Basic Income (UBI) - more so because he recognizes that the creation of humanoids might take the place of jobs that people are currently getting paid for. What if the need to do jobs disappears altogether? No more work at all, right? The idea that robots could make employment itself optional sounds fantastic at so many levels to some but in my opinion, the end result could be more of angst than ease.
Assuming a future that looks more like Star Trek or other sci-fi movies, we’d all end up with plenty of time on our hands to do nothing, secure with the knowledge that a certain basic income is guaranteed through UBI. Is that really a good thing? Should we also stop learning because there would be no more work to do? I would say no, because learning is a brain exercise that allows you to pause, regenerate energy and improve yourself. As they say, when you stop learning, you stop growing.
Besides, think of the social impact of no work and UBI and we’d be left to live a life without an aim or ambition. No working hard towards fulfilling a dream, no waking up everyday with the promise of a brand-new day and the possibilities it brings. For someone like me, it’s not about the jobs we do, it’s about the joy one finds in doing the little things, in meeting people, in interacting, for real. All these talks of avatars and humanoids makes me concerned about a major existential dilemma that if we didn't have to work anymore, then what exactly would we do?
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Never stop learning
Sure enough, there are plenty of positives of technology and on some days, I do feel that by eliminating the need for people to work, maybe, just maybe the robots would free us up to focus on things that really makes us human? Besides avoiding ‘dangerous’ tasks would put an end to the risk involved in cleaning the external glass on the 53rd floor of a tower or defusing a bomb or a humanoid making a differently abled person’s life easy and independent.
Computers can do things that require logic, but then logic as we know is only one part of the human mind; where would that leave empathy, creativity, judgment, and critical thinking??I feel it is our sense of curiosity and our penchant to learn that keeps us alive. As things go, it’s different when you actually feel the pain, the tears, the fears, the sorrow and the joy - it is what makes us human. And perhaps, what makes us human is work and our constant will to learn something new.
In the 2009 Sci-Fi thriller Surrogates there’s a futuristic, dystopian society where clones and robots - run by a system - do everything humans can. This goes on for years and while the main characters kept getting old, their clones remain all young, dynamic and raring to go. One day, when the system collapses, these clones drop dead in broad daylight. That’s when people come out of their home, experiencing sunlight and greeting each other for real after a very long time. It feels surreal. I hope this fiction never becomes a fact. I’ve always felt that in search of instant gratification, it is imperative to not lose out on the real deal - you! All things considered, when someday automation does indeed replace labor and there's plenty of everything - time included - at our disposal, would we still need it?
In such superfluous abundance, should we then just march into a ‘future of work by choice’, purely on the grounds that we can? Would we rather not ask, where’s the joy!
Link to the abridged version as published by moneycontrol.com:
Group Head @ Adfactors PR | PR & Digital Marketing | Corporate Communication
3 年Your articles are absolutely intriguing and thought-provoking. Love reading them. Lots to learn.
In fact, perhaps learning is about all there was and should be, to work. Not putting that learning to use in creating mass production that has only created such a global crisis as climate change. LoveCoin simplifies the relationship between Love and Work. At LoveCoin we see Life as essentially soul, and not as essentially body. We see Work as essentially a relationship between one's body and their soul. And Love as the only good enough reason for such work. Essentially implying that if we were to create a world that incentivized work that nourishes the soul, love and not money would be the currency. We are building LoveCoin, a platform that helps people form their own local community-based micro economies. Its for people who'd like to reduce/minimise their cost to nature. The hypothesis is quite simple really. The money economy is breeding a "make-all-you-can-while-you're-alive" culture. This encourages mindless buying, selling, and manufacturing that destroys our own air, water, soil. LoveCoin aims to encourage the exact opposite of this by incentivising mindless minimization. People in local communities can be each other's solutions to all their needs.