Quartz: Automation will force us to realize that we are not defined by what we do

Civilization has absorbed economic shocks driven by technology in the past, turning hundreds of millions of farmers into factory workers over the 19th and 20th centuries. However, these structural changes didn’t arrive as quickly as the breakneck pace we’re currently experiencing with AI. Based on current trends in technology advancement and adoption, I predict that within 15 years, AI will theoretically be able to replace 40% to 50% of jobs in the United States. Actual job losses may end up lagging behind by an additional decade, but the disruption to job markets will be very large, very real, and very soon. [...]

We’re already seeing evidence of this. According to study by Gallup, 20% of Americans who have been unemployed for over a year have been treated for depression. The Center for Disease Control has also called the unemployment rate among emerging adults a “public-health concern” after it found that unemployed people aged 18-25 were three times more likely to have depression than their employed counterparts. [...]

One of the books I read during my illness was Bronnie Ware’s The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, which is about the regrets of people on their deathbeds. She found that no one wished they’d worked harder or spent more time at the office or accumulated more possessions. People’s top wish was that they had spent more time sharing love with their loved ones. [...]

You might be skeptical: Do we need so many “service” jobs? But in the post-AI world, we will need many more social workers to help people make the transition. We will need many more compassionate caregivers who use AI for medical diagnosis and treatment, but wrap the cold data engine with the warmth of human love. We will need 10 times as many teachers to help children thrive in the brave new world (in fact, we need these teachers in the existing one, too). And with so much wealth created in the AI age, we will be able to make careers out of humanistic labors of love such as being there for our elderly, and homeschooling our children.

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