Human Obsolescence

It's only been 100 years or so since our physical labour was made obsolete, and emotionally an entire class of people have not got over the irrational feelings of uselessness this has caused. Now we're on the brink of the obsolescence of intellectual labour. It is this fact which is the most concerning effect of the AI revolution. People are useful because of their unique skills; now all skills are under threat.

People in western societies are physically unfit because there is no need to be strong. Soon there will be no need to be intelligent. If machines do the physical and intellectual work, people might not be needed, and it is utility which determines the survival of a species; this explains the difference in population between chickens and the endangered wild animals, the eagles, the dodos. Human extinction will not be caused in a dramatic war between humans and machines, but by a slow slide caused by a lack of human utility. In a world where machines can perform all human jobs, will humans be needed?

Perhaps an answer is that machines could never perform all human jobs, but perhaps this is a hopeful wish. One could say that animal artists, the elephants which grasp a brush and daub a canvas, create unique art which humans cannot. This is true to an extent, but it would be naïve to think that elephant art could compete with human art on equal terms. By this token, human skills could remain unique, personal, quirky, amusing, but ultimately and in all practical terms fail to compete with machine skills.

Mark Sheeky, 3 March 2024