Not having to work would be nice (but not like this)

I just wrote all these thoughts about work, AI, dystopian and utopian ideals from science fiction in books and videogames, a bit of a messy ramble this time

One of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read is definitely Childhood’s End, specifically because of the depiction of a future for Humanity living under a utopia, controlled by a benevolent alien civilization known as The Overlords. They got rid of war, they got rid of hunger, they got rid of disease, discrimination, and everything in between.

Humanity finds itself with literally no goal to pursue anymore. The Space Race is off-limits, now that the Overlords have technology beyond what any rockets or nuclear weapon can achieve.

Every human has their basic needs met, and now, they can pursue education throughout their whole lives, as many career paths and fields of study as they wish. Of course, all of it is pretty pointless, since just asking for an answer to the Overlords would spoil all the fun out of it. Humanity is no longer chasing dreams, not really.

Another short story I read, The Machine Stops, depicts a future where humanity is now sheltered, living in isolation from each other, everyone has their own room, filled with everything they may need, a press of a button can provide entertainment, food, and infinite music. You can pretend to be learning by reading books that have been paraphrased and diluted countless time, until only their “true essence” remains. Oh, and you can contact whoever you want from anywhere in the world! Very advanced for something written in 1909. Everything seems fine until everything goes wrong, and what can you do when the illusion breaks?

And, well, nowadays AI is a thing, and it just keeps being developed for the dumbest of reasons, making any potential it may have seem like it’ll get ruined anyway by whoever is in control.

Obviously, no real intelligence can be achieved with LLM as they are today. But corporate greed has caused plenty of people to lose their jobs already. The people in power really think, that the human touch, is no longer needed. The rich will only get richer and the poor will stay poor.

But that’s not a new thing, is it?

Honestly, it sucks, because some sci-fi stories give me some hope, it makes me think that Humanity shouldn’t need to work in order to live.

When I see all the posts about people losing jobs, I get kind of sad. Because I think “isn’t that the goal? to never have to work again someday?”, but of course, the problem is society expects you to earn money by working, by becoming a useful cog in a machine.

If we could truly replace every job performed by a human, while people just kept earning enough to fulfill their needs, I just wonder how it would be. I guess that’s what some Utopias try to depict. But it always end up problematic in one way or another. Or, I guess, we just don’t like happy endings, after all, it has never been achieved.

But it’s nice, sometimes, just imagining. We wouldn’t have to turn every dream into a source of income, it would just be something we are inspired to do for the sake of curiosity, or for the sake of helping one another, or for expressing what we want to say, or any other reason, no longer an obligation, just a pursue.

No aliens that know everything and pretty much control us, no all-mighty technology that keeps us happy by keeping us content. But how? how can we reach such a state?

I haven’t read many books about utopian futures, actually. But they never seem to come without sacrifices that need to be made. Which makes sense. Even in the best of futures, there are implications and costs one may not consider.

In my country we’ve gone through a couple of dictatorships. I am no historian, but my thoughts on how they were are constantly in conflict, there’s the books at “school” telling us they were unfair and terrible, there are the “grown up” books that are more nuanced about how the country advanced in some cases and how people in some circles got rich, there’s the conspiracies talking about how good it would have been if they have lasted just a little more time.

And I just ask why don’t the good guys just keep doing good things without expecting anything in return? Why aren’t they a part of history that often? There’s always someone who ends up in power and ruining things. They begin as a hero and then turn into the same thing.

I’m just rambling at this point. Despite everything, I still hope tomorrow turns out to be fine, and that the mess that is today is dealt with, at some point. We can always try to be better, we can always seek change. Or will the cycle repeat again?

I wrote 80% of this post a few days ago, but since then, I have also played 1000xRESIST, and it got me thinking about all this again.

Yet again, a dystopian future, where, a society of clones is all that remains. You are part of a resistance against the Occupants, cosmical entities that came with a virus that caused the extinction of the rest of mankind. As the story progresses, you realize the current system is not what it seems, and the game will continue to develop this concept in ways I don’t want to spoil further more.

Just, keep going, keep standing up for what is right, support your fellow humans, do not give up.

And just go play 1000xRESIST please?

This is day 88 of #100DaysToOffload

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