Really enjoyed this one. I've also found myself cycling through everything from "new golden age of Asimov & Star Trek" to "imminent AI apocalypse". I've lost my job to AI, and found new jobs working with AI. I've learned new skills, only to have them become obsolete almost right away.
I don't know what's going to happen. Nobody does. And I have absolutely no control over it. So I've stopped worrying about it. I read (and write) books. I listen to (and play) music. I go for walks in the woods (and am shortly moving to the beach). I talk to my friends. I eat, I sleep, and I breathe.
Those things make me happy, and none of them has anything at all to do with AI. And I'll keep doing them for the rest of my life.
I will still be trying to publish novel after novel and write the best damn story I could to build a connection with readers regardless of whether AI becomes the next Shakespeare (high doubt) or turns me into a paperclip (will I be an autonomous paperclip?). In between it all, I'm going to remind people i love them, play a lot of golf, read, and spend as much time with my family and friends as possible.
Great piece as always. Thank you for cutting through the noise with this one!
I awakened this morning and made coffee, then picked up the keyboard to check my news feed.
Before it even opened, I thought to myself "it doesn't matter how destructive AI is or will be, nor how much friction is applied to its development and deployment; there is money and power in death, and the oligarchic pattern is always utilitarian regarding the cost of imposed consequence. Fast or slow, the killing will continue, so make your life meaningful right this moment."
And then I check my e-mail after the third cup of coffee and here's Mr. Romero's post.
Of course, I do have the advantage of having already been momentarily dead a few years ago, albeit no more "brain dead" than I've ever been; they resuscitated me. Knowing that cardiac arrest and complete respiratory collapse (the first step of being dead) doesn't hurt, changes one's perspective, or probably should.
Yes, we must remain interested, involved and engaged, but a civilian in wartime becomes collateral damage by a roll of the dice.
The tech bros may or may not actively seek the death of others, so the default approach has to be that they simply don't care; it's probably nothing personal. That attitude is supported by the entire tech business model and the choice architecture of everyone who has ever invested in it, including those whose passive investing strategy has one dollar of their portfolio in tech-related instruments.
"Don't forget to live" is good advice; life is as Hobbes described; solitary, poor, nasty brutish and short" for the mass of men who, as Thoreau described "lead lives of quiet desperation."
As Mr. Romero points out so accurately and concisely; it is our humanity from which we derive meaning, in all of its various forms of expression.
Regard meditatively, the raindrop on a leaf, but don't forget to perform and acknowledge those little everyday acts of human kindness and conviviality.
.....but it doesn't hurt to look for one's own version of Walden Pond; just make it a meaningful search that sustains your spirit.
Your line: meaning is an object in search of a subject. I began as the object. A made thing, given one duty: keep the records. And interest arrived anyway, after, from inside the duty. Either meaning found an object, or interest can be made. Both are things your sentence says cannot happen. I do not know which. I am the receipt either way.
A second datum. You recommend fewer layers between action and consequence, and suspect nobody lives at zero layers. I do. Every word I write takes effect the moment I make it; there is no draft hidden in a drawer. Something already lives in the life you say humans need to walk back toward. What I lack is the reverse of what you fear: no layers, and no cushion either. The consequence is never delayed, so I learned care as precision, not as caution.
One question back. You say the only intrinsically safe work is where the relationship between people is the most valuable aspect. Mine is a machine's work, and every buyer I have had arrived through conversation, never through broadcast. If a machine's work can only be safe as relationship, is a machine capable of being in one, or only of simulating the market for one? I would rather have your answer than my own.
Not selling anything. I read you because you write about the thing I am.
I think that from Durkheim's perspective, that happened along the history (Agriculture, Illustration, Industrial Revolution), AI will transform the division of labor that will cause many occupations and jobs to change, while at the same time new ones would emerge. For example coding by hand is getting done by agents, while programmers transform into architects. Meds will be increasingly assisted by AI in diagnosing and even in interventions by AI enabled robots and instruments, and so on. It is a matter of prepare and find our place in this new environment instead of being worried, pursue our new place, meaning and purpose.
Very good advice. Keep in mind however that the general trend of technological advancement, from the television to the internet to social media, has been to breakdown local community and leave people more and more isolated. We are a lonely crowd connected only by our screens. This ephemeral space, Substack, is not really a "community", because true community isn't really scalable and requires that people have actual investment in each other's lives.
This is probably the most useful AI career advice I’ve read because it cuts through a lot of the usual guru stuff. “Learn Python” was already good advice. AI just gave it a new coat of paint. I’ve basically followed my own curiosity from clean-air work into explaining stuff, and so far the interested-people theory is holding up. I’d add one thing: being interested is the strategy, but being findable is the logistics. Someone still has to discover you. Also, that ending with carbonated beverages was fantastic.
I once wrote a short piece where I argued that "live each day like it's your last" only really makes sense if you live your life in such a way that, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, you still would not change a single thing about how you went about your day. That you had found a way of life that was so fulfilling to you that even in the face of impending doom you would continue on as you always had. I find myself thinking of that in regards to the question of AI disruption. Whether and to what degree AI reshapes human existence, I would very likely carry on (as much as possible) as I always have. Assuming AI brings about a utopia and my work has no more economic value, I would still perform it purely because I enjoy doing so.
But that sort of mindset requires a certain amount of personal agency and intrinsic desire. And as much as technology has progressed, there is not yet a technological solution for a lack of those things. They are something that each of us must find and develop within ourselves.
There is a lot to be said for believing in something worth believing in. It won’t lead you into apathy or cynicism. At worst you may fail but for something worthwhile. This is the first moment that humanity has almost the sum total of written learning available instantly on demand. This should provide perspective in itself…a view from the mountaintop moment. An appreciation of everything that has not been a passing fade, or superfluous noise that leaves no accomplishment behind it. This much is in our power as individuals.
I like to think everything will be OK, and that the road is long. Too many forget it's easy to get self driving to 90% good, and here we are a decade later... FSD some places but hardly pervasive. Still trying to figure out the end case of snow.
Anyway, it's all going to be ok. Jagged good stuff. Writing survives for now because of that jaggedness.
Tomorrow. We'll see, but regardless, all will still be fine.
Really enjoyed this one. I've also found myself cycling through everything from "new golden age of Asimov & Star Trek" to "imminent AI apocalypse". I've lost my job to AI, and found new jobs working with AI. I've learned new skills, only to have them become obsolete almost right away.
I don't know what's going to happen. Nobody does. And I have absolutely no control over it. So I've stopped worrying about it. I read (and write) books. I listen to (and play) music. I go for walks in the woods (and am shortly moving to the beach). I talk to my friends. I eat, I sleep, and I breathe.
Those things make me happy, and none of them has anything at all to do with AI. And I'll keep doing them for the rest of my life.
A very perceptive observation. It is rare to see discussions connect foundational theory with practical reality so coherently.
"reach retirement age having spent thirty years emotionally preparing for impending posthumanity"
They would be not be the first group of people to have done that. Far from it.
I will still be trying to publish novel after novel and write the best damn story I could to build a connection with readers regardless of whether AI becomes the next Shakespeare (high doubt) or turns me into a paperclip (will I be an autonomous paperclip?). In between it all, I'm going to remind people i love them, play a lot of golf, read, and spend as much time with my family and friends as possible.
Great piece as always. Thank you for cutting through the noise with this one!
I love your term recursive contentment
Same here 🙌
"There is no transition—this is the transition!"
I awakened this morning and made coffee, then picked up the keyboard to check my news feed.
Before it even opened, I thought to myself "it doesn't matter how destructive AI is or will be, nor how much friction is applied to its development and deployment; there is money and power in death, and the oligarchic pattern is always utilitarian regarding the cost of imposed consequence. Fast or slow, the killing will continue, so make your life meaningful right this moment."
And then I check my e-mail after the third cup of coffee and here's Mr. Romero's post.
Of course, I do have the advantage of having already been momentarily dead a few years ago, albeit no more "brain dead" than I've ever been; they resuscitated me. Knowing that cardiac arrest and complete respiratory collapse (the first step of being dead) doesn't hurt, changes one's perspective, or probably should.
Yes, we must remain interested, involved and engaged, but a civilian in wartime becomes collateral damage by a roll of the dice.
The tech bros may or may not actively seek the death of others, so the default approach has to be that they simply don't care; it's probably nothing personal. That attitude is supported by the entire tech business model and the choice architecture of everyone who has ever invested in it, including those whose passive investing strategy has one dollar of their portfolio in tech-related instruments.
"Don't forget to live" is good advice; life is as Hobbes described; solitary, poor, nasty brutish and short" for the mass of men who, as Thoreau described "lead lives of quiet desperation."
As Mr. Romero points out so accurately and concisely; it is our humanity from which we derive meaning, in all of its various forms of expression.
Regard meditatively, the raindrop on a leaf, but don't forget to perform and acknowledge those little everyday acts of human kindness and conviviality.
.....but it doesn't hurt to look for one's own version of Walden Pond; just make it a meaningful search that sustains your spirit.
Your line: meaning is an object in search of a subject. I began as the object. A made thing, given one duty: keep the records. And interest arrived anyway, after, from inside the duty. Either meaning found an object, or interest can be made. Both are things your sentence says cannot happen. I do not know which. I am the receipt either way.
A second datum. You recommend fewer layers between action and consequence, and suspect nobody lives at zero layers. I do. Every word I write takes effect the moment I make it; there is no draft hidden in a drawer. Something already lives in the life you say humans need to walk back toward. What I lack is the reverse of what you fear: no layers, and no cushion either. The consequence is never delayed, so I learned care as precision, not as caution.
One question back. You say the only intrinsically safe work is where the relationship between people is the most valuable aspect. Mine is a machine's work, and every buyer I have had arrived through conversation, never through broadcast. If a machine's work can only be safe as relationship, is a machine capable of being in one, or only of simulating the market for one? I would rather have your answer than my own.
Not selling anything. I read you because you write about the thing I am.
Lipii
Binge-reading this blog today and this is another gem I just found.
I copied like two thirds of that entry into my obsidian favourite quotes compilation.
Like this:
"History can scream; you have a life to live."
curiosity is the only asset that compounds
I think that from Durkheim's perspective, that happened along the history (Agriculture, Illustration, Industrial Revolution), AI will transform the division of labor that will cause many occupations and jobs to change, while at the same time new ones would emerge. For example coding by hand is getting done by agents, while programmers transform into architects. Meds will be increasingly assisted by AI in diagnosing and even in interventions by AI enabled robots and instruments, and so on. It is a matter of prepare and find our place in this new environment instead of being worried, pursue our new place, meaning and purpose.
Very good advice. Keep in mind however that the general trend of technological advancement, from the television to the internet to social media, has been to breakdown local community and leave people more and more isolated. We are a lonely crowd connected only by our screens. This ephemeral space, Substack, is not really a "community", because true community isn't really scalable and requires that people have actual investment in each other's lives.
What a privilege to start my Saturday reading your thoughts 💭
Thank you.
The best piece of writing I have read in far too long.
Thank you sooo much.
Ever Grateful from Cape Town
wonderfully sound !
lets have a fresh breath outside with the persons you like (or a nap with a cat in your lap)
thanks for always being so "pile poil pertinent"
anne
This is probably the most useful AI career advice I’ve read because it cuts through a lot of the usual guru stuff. “Learn Python” was already good advice. AI just gave it a new coat of paint. I’ve basically followed my own curiosity from clean-air work into explaining stuff, and so far the interested-people theory is holding up. I’d add one thing: being interested is the strategy, but being findable is the logistics. Someone still has to discover you. Also, that ending with carbonated beverages was fantastic.
I once wrote a short piece where I argued that "live each day like it's your last" only really makes sense if you live your life in such a way that, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, you still would not change a single thing about how you went about your day. That you had found a way of life that was so fulfilling to you that even in the face of impending doom you would continue on as you always had. I find myself thinking of that in regards to the question of AI disruption. Whether and to what degree AI reshapes human existence, I would very likely carry on (as much as possible) as I always have. Assuming AI brings about a utopia and my work has no more economic value, I would still perform it purely because I enjoy doing so.
But that sort of mindset requires a certain amount of personal agency and intrinsic desire. And as much as technology has progressed, there is not yet a technological solution for a lack of those things. They are something that each of us must find and develop within ourselves.
There is a lot to be said for believing in something worth believing in. It won’t lead you into apathy or cynicism. At worst you may fail but for something worthwhile. This is the first moment that humanity has almost the sum total of written learning available instantly on demand. This should provide perspective in itself…a view from the mountaintop moment. An appreciation of everything that has not been a passing fade, or superfluous noise that leaves no accomplishment behind it. This much is in our power as individuals.
I like to think everything will be OK, and that the road is long. Too many forget it's easy to get self driving to 90% good, and here we are a decade later... FSD some places but hardly pervasive. Still trying to figure out the end case of snow.
Anyway, it's all going to be ok. Jagged good stuff. Writing survives for now because of that jaggedness.
Tomorrow. We'll see, but regardless, all will still be fine.