There is a recent article, How A.I. could change the future of work, where a fellow said, “For myself as both an economist and an engineer, I’m absolutely shocked at the rate at which some of these generative content mechanisms are improving. There’s also been a long-standing debate, what’s the impact likely to be on the workforce?”
Asking about the workforce takes from an advanced set with what should have been begun with, why is there a workforce at all? Why does anyone work? What happens if someone refuses to work? What is the relationship between work and survival? What matters more, the work that is done or wages? What is the role of shame that makes having nothing to do worse?
Without some of these questions, it may be difficult to seek out why it is worrisome that AI might displace jobs. Work is a complex term, with a simple variation of it, as doing. Anything done can be characterized as work. It may be worth a wage or not, but doing anything is a form of work.
The value placed on doing, results in roles and pay. There are doings that make living better. There are others that build useful facilities, beyond human capabilities, to be applied to other doings. There are eras and places where people mostly did what helped them live. There are some important ones whose success became a requirement for continuous existence. Many derived meanings from how important their work is, aside remuneration.
Meaning, conceptually, is a property in the human mind. So is pleasure or reward. All the reasons people work are indirectly because of the human mind, where the basis of living is shaped. Those that work for survival do so, to ensure the mind has energy to run. Those that do for meaning, do so to acquire the property on the mind, before satisfaction is acquired. Those who do for social standing or to cater for loved ones, do so in part, to avoid the property of shame being acquired, but to have comparison [of better or equal] to others acquired, then satisfaction. There are those also, who work for pleasure, or to get things that ensure to achieve the reward property on the mind. There are those who work for pay, but the process acquires the boredom property for them.
There are several direct categories of why people work that may need to be outlined, as AI’s competence is projected to accelerate. Though universal basic income [UBI] is explored as an option against future job losses, there are some in categories, who those may carry through.
There may be a need for an expansion of doings and an alternation of pay, delayed or in other forms, so that work for other things currently not valued are listed as activities. There are several things in any community that need to be done, that no one does. There are several things that people currently do that are not seen as work that can be included. There are interesting doings and uninteresting ones that can be varied.
There is a necessity to display a conceptual way that the human mind works, to ensure that more people personally understand why is it they have to work, for how the mind processes it. The future of work is expansive and involves neurobiology, not just labor economics and related fields.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
