Will purpose decide the new social order?
Here’s what the tea leaves say about our robotic future
’Tis time to reflect
Recently, someone (I admire) asked a thought-provoking question on LinkedIn, here it goes: If you wake up tomorrow and never have to work ever again, what would you do? What would you do for the rest of your life?
The question is inevitable. Thanks to quantum leaps in AI and Robotics in the recent years, the bigger question isn’t how but when. As for the how, it is only a matter of time before Universal Basic Income becomes a reality. Naturally, standard of living will be better (universally) and cost of living will be much less, so much so that the concept of money might lose its shine (to a degree).
I know all this is purely hypothetical at this point, but humour me. Tomorrow (in the not so distant future), when you wake up you have everything you need (decent housing, unlimited clean energy, unlimited data, free education, free healthcare, a self driven car, fully stocked refrigerator brimming with organic produce, robots to cook, clean and do everything in between, well, you get the picture). What will you do then? You can either stay in bed all day, enjoying pizza (of course made and delivered by a robot) enjoying Netflix (playlist made by your VA) or you can work on ideas, which will shape the next era of humanity. I am no clairvoyant, however, I think while some things will change, some others will still remain the same.
Here’s how it will transpire: There will be people who will shy away from responsibilities, making decisions, being disciplined and most importantly, casting the future. This group of fence-sitters will sit back and enjoy the show. And there will be those who will not only find the right answers but will ask the right questions that will impact humanity at large. Even in this Utopian future, we will have artists, writers, dreamers, spiritual gurus, inventors, explorers, entrepreneurs, activists and unfortunately, politicians too.
In my humble opinion, the new social order will be decided by the choice you make - do you want to become a spectator or the game-changer? While you mull over this dilemma let me check on my tea-bot, it seems to be broken.
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