I’ve Been Living The Life AI Futurists Promise Us, Here’s My Review
I’m kind of obsessed with AI. For about two years now my podcast listening has heavily shifted over to podcasts about AI. I use AI, run local models on my home computer, and think a lot about this technology and what it holds in store for us.
Don’t assume “obsessed” means “enamored” or that I’m an all-in fan boy. AI both excites me and scares me. As I’ve stated on this blog before, no other technology has the potential to cure all human disease AND kill us all in numerous ways. We’re in uncharted waters.
The Futurists’ Post-Scarcity Dream
The most vocal AI proponents, often called techno-optimists or transhumanists, when asked about what the world will look like 20 years from now, usually give the same story.
Most or all human diseases will be eliminated, and we’ll reach longevity escape velocity. All human basic needs such as food, water, shelter, medicine etc will be abundant and free. Energy will be too cheap to meter. Robots will drive us around (already here in some cities) and do all the things we don’t want to do. They’ll cook for us, clean, keep the yard up, fix the roof, etc etc. And they’ll be practically free too.
In other words, we’ll be in a world of abundance with nothing to do but pass the time pursuing our passions. As Peter Diamandis and Dario Amodei have said many times, we’ll just be free to create, to create whatever we want.
Welcome to my world….
Accidental Futurist
The utopian scenario described above is getting closer and closer to the life I lead now. The big exceptions of course are that diseases have yet to be cured by AI and I can still get them. I’m still aging and will, by all accounts, die one day. I don’t have a robot doing all my chores for me, I don’t even have a Roomba though I guess I could get one.
Oh and my heat and gas bills keep rising.
But the last part of their scenario, the ‘create’ part… man I’m hitting that one out of the park.
This past week I reached a personal goal. I wanted to one day be able to say I’ve made income from writing, drawing/painting, and making music. I consider those three things fundamental to what we call “art”.
This blog has been making income for about 7 years now, although it’s down to less than $5 most months. But it still counts. My graphic arts business still makes decent money, about $1,000 a month. And this past week I sold my first original music recordings! Someone bought my 2 song release last week on Bandcamp.
Now I can say I’m a ‘professional’ musician, haha.
So I spend most of my non-sleeping time either working out, writing, doing visual art, or making music. I create. And I’ve made income in 3 major modalities of creation. It’s what the techno-optimists envision all of us doing in the not-so-distant future.
Is it fun and rewarding?
My Review Of The Future
Yes, it’s fun and rewarding! 5 stars. But, I will admit, without external validation it wouldn’t be the same. I’d love to be the kind of artist who does the thing solely for the sake of doing the thing. We all know the “true artist” creates for him/herself, for the passion of doing it.
The reality is, the percentage of artists who are really like that is tiny. At least in my opinion.
Artists create to have their creations seen, consumed. I follow lots of bands on the internet, and most get genuinely giddy before their record comes out. They post on social media that they can’t wait for you to hear their new music. Because they poured their heart and soul into it, and want you to like it. Same for writers, same for visual artists.
The most direct way of knowing someone liked your creations is when they pay for them, plain and simple. This external validation is something that I deeply desire when creating art. I want someone – anyone – to just say “hey that’s pretty good, here’s a buck”.
Not because I need the money, because I want that validation. It helps me quell my imposter syndrome.
Deep down I wish I could be the starving artist who only does it for himself, working away in obscurity with no one even seeing his creations. Doing it only for the love of doing it.
Who’s Gonna Consume Everyone Else’s Stuff
That brings us back to the future. What happens when billions of people have nothing to do but create. There won’t be enough people left to consume what’s being created. It’s already happening now.
Spotify has an estimated 250 million songs. Every day there are more than 100,000 new songs uploaded to the platform. Every day! And approximately 22% of songs on Spotify (55 million) have never been played once. Yes a lot of this is fully AI generated music but Spotify is finally trying to slow that deluge.
The point of these numbers is to show that in music it’s already been happening. So much is being created there’s just too much to be listened to. If the AI future of abundance makes it that half the world’s population doesn’t need a job and lives a life of leisure and creation, who will they be creating for?
External validation will be very scarce or non-existent. How many chest of drawers can the world possibly buy if AI allows tens of millions of people to pursue their hobby of woodworking because they have all their needs met and don’t need a job?
And if those new woodworkers keep creating things only to find no one wants them, how long will they stick with it before they become disillusioned?
Accomplish While You Can
Most humans desire accomplishment. And, like it or not, a job has been one of the main ways to meet that need. If the “post-scarcity” world the AI futurists promise comes to fruition, the side effects might be dystopian. Endless time to pursue passions sounds awesome until you realize you’re shouting into a vacuum.
The life I’ve been leading is indeed great, but that’s because I still feel valued. My designs are out there everywhere, my blog has been read literally millions of times over the past decade, and now someone owns mp3’s of my music and is apparently jamming to it.
If my creations were completely ignored however, would I keep creating?
So in the end what’s my overall review of this life of passion and creation?
Get it while you can.
*Shameless Plug Section*
My main Redbubble storefront with all of my designs
Every post written on this blog
*Note: All words on this blog will always be my own and I will never use AI to generate any text – ever. I may use AI for images to decorate a post because let’s face it, sometimes that’s fun.
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