We are in an unusual time right now in history, for 2 inexhaustive reasons:
- Time is moving faster than ever. Life before 1800s was mostly farming, religion, and war. After the industrial revolution, there's work, science, mass entertainment, elected politics, hospitals, and all sorts of benefits, vices, and complexities for the modern society. And now there's computer, the Internet, and AI. It seemed that all the progress that made modern world the modern world occurred in the last 200 years, and life under all 1800 years or more before industrial revolution looked the same mundane.
- Besides war in disputed regions and coup in volatile states, we haven't major worldwide conflicts for 70 years
For point 1, with all the big changes and buzzword like AI, what to make of it?
Suppose AI does replace humans. At the moment, it hasn't in my opinion. But suppose in the future it does. Then if we can keep AI in our service, we can just farm all the benefits, not work, and doom scroll all day. But if they get out of hand, things will get complicated, and I don't know how it will turn out. But at the moment we are fine, so the solution is to just keep life going as usual, stay in touch with humans, use AI tools to reasonable extent, and ignore all the AI sign boards on the side of San Francisco roads. My friend and I went to Las Vegas few weeks ago. There was no AI sign boards next to the roads, and it was so refreshing. Until we went to the Venetian convention center and it was a freaking AI Sass conference.
For point 2, suppose we get in a war at some point, what to do?
All the fancy career plans, investment portfolio and stuff, out of the window. Just survive. Doesn't matter how much RSU stock or fancy job you have, we all gotta run. Or become a soldier, get killed in the battlefield, and break your mom and fiancé's hearts. Fiancés come and go, but you only have 1 mom. She spent 10 months of physical pain and many more years of mental pain raising you, and now you are in an ashtray. In big times like war, our lives become number small as ants. We don't have control over our fate, and we just gotta flow with wherever the refugee camps take us next.
Which means, we need to value the unusual moment of history we are in right now. We are at peace. And AI or other stuff hasn't effectively threatened humanity yet. Thinking about all the tragedies make me realize, hmmm, it's another lucky day survived and we gotta appreciate it. And I gotta doom scroll Instagram more.