Complications of Life: AI, Families, and Work
The world is getting out of hand. And so are my thoughts. This is my attempt at coherence.
The world has become too complicated. So much that it has bifurcated into two — the online world and the offline.
If you hover around on social media, you’d find two extremes. Either people are ultra-successful or ultra-anxious and ultra-hopeless. If you hover around in the real world, you’ll know that the latter category is the one that is closer to reality.
If “overwhelm” was ever dialed up to 100x and then multiplied even further, you’d get the sense of anxiety that any regularly functioning human in today’s society is hit with from time to time.
Honestly, to me, it seems the world has become way too confusing to be comprehended and adjusted to a normal human being’s mental bandwidth. There is too much information to take in, too many systems to understand, and too many options to choose from.
What was meant to be simple and necessary is now complex and unnecessary. We used to have inventions and innovations meant to solve problems. But, now the news is not made by path-breaking inventions or discoveries, but the opposite.
Every other day your social media feed will feature something about the latest “useless” invention. Newspapers feature stories of the dangers of new tech. This is not cynical fear-mongering. A very basic example is in your hands right now, on which you’re probably reading this article — Mobile phones. They were meant to bring us closer across long distances. But now they are capable enough of mentally separating people who’re sitting right next to each other.
This is what technology of this era is doing best. Be it the internet. Give it for cheap and free and see the rise of porn addiction. Be it social media. Give everyone unlimited access and open a Pandora’s box of mental disorders, cybercrime, and whatever Twitter is.
Simply put, we’re overdoing it.
How has work changed?
Our lifestyles and orientation towards life itself are changing without us even realizing it.
Let’s just look at one aspect of life — work.
Earlier, the distinctions between professions and the kind of life every profession offered were very clear. When you picked a profession, you had a sense of the kind of challenges you’ll have to face, the kind of career path you could embark on, and what were your options.
There was a certainty and something to look forward to. You knew what you were going in for if you chose to become an engineer or an artist, a journalist, etc.
All this was greatly aided by the knowledge your elders (parents, grandparents, relatives) had, who could share and pass it down to you. It was very likely that the kind of world and lifestyle your grandparents occupied, was the one that you were going to play your cards in. But today? I’m not even sure if my little cousins are going to occupy the same world as I did!
In 2023, can anyone with surety tell their child what kind of opportunities or life their child is in for if they ever say that they’re going to pick XYZ profession? How are parents supposed to lead their children? How can students be prepared for a world that is changing with every passing year?
I don’t know if Instagram will be relevant in the future or if writing and other arts will become automated by the time the next generation gets their chance. How will I ever be able to help them?
The new corporate fad to deal with this scenario is to “keep up with the trends, changes, and developments”. This is a key role requirement listed in most digital or tech-related job descriptions. But how much can anyone keep up is the question? Let's not forget there is a new AI tool being launched as you’re reading this.
Lest you may think, I’m not a Luddite
It is important to make it clear here that I’m not asking for a reversal of economic development and technological advancement. What I’m asking for is integration and equitable distribution. Basically, avoid the Promethean Gap.
How has education been impacted?
As good as humans are at adapting, we still struggle to adjust to some major changes.
Such a problem lies in the education sector. Just like technology, this sector has also expanded and diversified over the years. But there’s a problem. It is great that career options have been diversified, but the diversity will not be used to its maximum capability if we don’t have a system to direct every individual to the career path best suitable for their unique capabilities and talents.
A sector will struggle to find talent and provide incentives for people to explore it (yes, social sciences, I can feel your pain). And students will not have the accurate guidance needed to find the perfect profession for them nor they’d have the incentive or financial backing needed to explore. Thus, maintaining the status quo and killing the intended diversity, or worse, creating a facade of its existence.
Generation Gap
The role of community, family, and elders is something I’ve stressed in the previous passages. But that aspect of society is also at risk. Looking at the unit of family, I think a major problem this rapid and unsystematic tech development causes is the generation gap.
This has completely destabilized family dynamics in my opinion. Once I was conversing with my Uncle, who is in his early 70s, and he remarked upon the same - “Earlier, a father could talk to his son about what he should do and how he should live and plan things. Because earlier development was slower. But today, life is changing very fast. Now how can a father even advice his son correctly because his son is doing things so differently from him?”
This is the reality of the society we live in today, and I’m not sure if that’ll stay this way forever. Will I use Google Docs, Substack, or something else in the next 5 years? Would I even need to write? Or will my job be taken over by bots?
Well, how did we get here? And where do we go from here then?
The AI Question
Now coming to the next technological revolution we’re to witness even though we’re still reeling, adjusting, and learning about the effects of the last one.
It’s wonderful that we are advancing so much in technology, but a question arises, is every new technology needed? Who asked for it? And what will be the consequences of said tech? Today, we have AI that can create doctored videos and images. What is the need for this? Have the makers of such tech even considered the consequences of it falling into the wrong hands?
We need systematic and well-planned development of technology; rampant urbanization during the industrial revolution led to the emergence of the modern-day “cityscape”, a kind of architecture and infrastructure that is inconducive to the climate ecosystem and oriented unhealthily to a human being’s lifestyle.
Thoughtless urban planning led to this, what would the thoughtless distribution of potentially dangerous technology lead to?
An Encounter with Tyranny
I’ve attempted to make sense of all my other related concerns in the form of a short dialogue between a young boy (well, me, when I was that age) who’s just finished school, and his encounter with a person called the System (a representation of the world & society at large).
In this piece, the System is a brutally honest salesperson-esque figure, and if the boy had a conversation with it, it’d probably go like this:
Me: Hi, I have completed my school education. Now what should I do next? What is the next step I should take?
System: Wanna take a course? There are 100s of streams with dozens of sub-streams with further specializations.
Me: Is each and everyone secure? Like career-wise?
System: Nope, we don’t know (read: can’t share) because we don’t systematically disseminate important and correct information to students.
Me: Why?
System: We have our biases toward the sciences and the commerce disciplines. So why bother with the others? They aren’t professions with any real value at the end of the day. Also, planning out a structure in which the talents of all are utilised best, simply takes too much effort and doesn’t look like a quick result and money-making venture. And Whatsapp and the media are already doing the job (read: passing around misinformation).
Me: So you’re saying there is no systematic process helping young students chart out their careers so that each individual’s talent can be utilized and our only solace is the media which is concerned with the Indian education system only when the govt. exam results come out so that they can deify the toppers and just, generate more such content to grab eyeballs?
System: Yes.
Me: But shouldn’t we be taught the right course of action to make the most of ourselves, our careers, and our choices?
System: Phew, what a foolish thought. Who taught Einstein? Who taught Ramanujan? Who taught Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg? Geniuses are made in adversity. If you’re struggling, it is yours and your fault alone. If you aren’t a millionaire, it’s because all these guys are better than you.
Me: That makes no sense. Why are you even lumping them all together? And Ramanujan wasn’t even a millionaire, he died in poverty. Anyway, I can see your bias. So what about people from science and commerce backgrounds? They’re your favorites, you must take care of them.
System: Hmm. I mean, they’re not our favorites. They just serve their purpose as of now. They’re tools—objects for a bigger objective. Once, we don’t have use for them, or they prove to be costly, we change them. Thus we are building AI. The funny thing is we’re paying these guys only, quite heavily too, to build this AI. They’re building what can potentially disrupt them only in the future. I love this blissful awareness of these fools. Haha.
Me: Oh God. What is your bigger objective?
System: To make money.
Me: For whom?
System: For the select few. The geniuses. Clearly, you are not one of them.
Me: What!? Why? You haven’t even given me a chance! I’ve just finished schooling.
System: You ask too many questions. Why is the System the way it is? What is the objective? blah blah. All nonsense. Futile, philosophical musings. These are not practical. They don’t do anyone any good. Kafka died poor, so did Bukowski. Van Gogh chopped off his ear.
Me: But I can’t let this go. I can think, see and feel. What you’re doing, isn’t this wrong? Why are you using all these people? I’ve heard stories that they’re overworked, burnt out, and lead a soulless life.
System: Soulless? Ah! What a load of bollocks. That’s a small price for how much we pay these scientists, engineers, managers, and all. And we pay them heavily, as I said. We give them comforts, wealth, and luxurious homes. If a man with a wife, and two children earns 1.2 cr per annum, after a point, he’ll quite easily be able to afford four houses. One for each family member. Does he need it? Of course not! But does he “feel” good? Oh, yes! He “feels” rich. And also, we keep giving the benefit of this scheme to different communities.
Me: Oh really?! Like who?
System: For the last 60 years or so, film stars and celebrities around the world were availing this scheme. They became filthy rich. When the entire world was burning in covid, they were chilling in their mansions, doing Gutka ads, taking trips to the Maldives. Hell, they were even protesting to not take the vaccines! Hahaha… why? no reason, for fun! Just because, they can. Because they can afford to toy with the lives of the powerless. After all, that’s the fun in it, isn’t it?
Me: This is messed up. If you love this so much, then why did you stop the scheme for them?
System: Simple! They’re useless to us now, duh. We’ve developed AI good enough to carve their likeness into full-fledged live-action figures on screen. Why would we need real people now? It’s a very efficient policy — Use & Throw. And we are fully comfortable with the fancy ideas of justice and equality; which is why this policy is fairly imposed on all. But the beauty of this is the blissful ignorance. How beautifully no one bothers with the reality and the impending doom waiting for them in the corner. Why should they? When they can instead dance to the tunes of the latest track, worthlessly waste their time binging the latest web series, and be busily merry munching away at the latest food chain?
Me: Is this what you’ll do to all of us?
System: Yes.
Well, I guess this is the modern education system & the modern world.
Some may argue that AI and new tech would turn society into a playground where creativity thrives. But, as has happened before, such technology can very well instead turn society into a warzone where only mistrust, chaos, and anxiety survive. Despondency would become the zeitgeist of the future.
Final Thoughts
I mentioned at the beginning of this article how social media and cheap internet also have negative ramifications. The solution is not to take away these amenities, but to regulate them, curb the darker & criminal aspects of them, and systematically educate people on how to use them.
The same goes for AI. Are the justice systems that rely on video/audio footage for evidence ready for deepfakes and voice duplication? Are we as a society ready to live in a world where we can’t even trust someone’s voice over a call?
I ask again, Who asked for this? Who said “We need more ways, more technology more machinery that would enable misinformation, propaganda, and ensure chaos. Please find more ways in which I can be misled!? Let’s make real connections between two normal human beings even more difficult!”
I’m sure no one did.
AI may very well be the future. But don’t we already have a lot of problems with our “present” that we haven’t solved? We haven’t even adjusted to our present yet, let alone prepare for the future. Social media is now less of a boon and more of a bane. Almost every platform takes our data and that doesn’t make us any more safe.
All of these issues should have forced the stakeholders, the creators of such tech, and ourselves the consumers to slow down and learn their lesson. But why is no one stopping? Why is no one ready to take a pause? Why are the makers refusing to learn?
These are the questions that we should be asking ourselves. But we aren’t. And that is what concerns me.
An engaging piece I read after a long time. This addresses a lot of issues that I've been encountering lately. Would love to hear more from you. Good work!!
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