You're a Useless Sack of Flesh

Finding Meaning in a World With AI and Robotics

How well can you sing? How well can you code? How well can you swing a hammer? How well can you drive a car? How well can you provide legal advice? How well can you diagnose a lung X-Ray? How well can you write?

Humans see the world through eyes clouded by lies. Our minds are brimming with biased predispositions, shaped by countless influences. You may not realize how unreliable human memory can be — we often assume that just because we remember something, it must be true. Perhaps this is why The Mandela Effect phenomenon exists because we’re all working with the same biology we’re probably likely to have similar cognitive patterns that result in misremembering in similar ways and our giant ego’s are so fragile we’d rather believe that we’re living in an alternate universe before believing we’re wrong and that perhaps the Monopoly man never actually had a monocle after all.

So you see my point? You can’t reliably remember large datasets of information let alone remember if monopoly man had a monocle or not.

Technology optimizes for reducing human error. That’s why very soon, AI will be able to analyze the 1,000 greatest songs of all time, detect hidden patterns, and generate thousands of new hits within minutes. It will write fully functional software applications with hundreds of thousands of lines of code, faster than any team of developers. AI-powered robots will take on any physical task a human can do — yes, even swing a hammer. Self-driving cars will navigate roads with unparalleled safety, making falling asleep at the wheel a feature rather than a fear.

Legal troubles? AI will provide better legal counsel than the sharpest lawyers — for free. Need a diagnosis? AI will interpret X-rays with 100% accuracy. And for those craving literary brilliance, AI will craft novels so profound they’ll surpass the works of the greatest authors in history.

What value does your human output bring to world where everything will be done at a scale much larger, faster and effectively by AI?

Face it. You’re soon to be a useless sack of flesh.

The future quality of your life depends on your answer to this question: Who are you?

I can only tell you what you’re not.

You’re not a singer. You’re not a computer scientist. You’re not a handyman. You’re not an Uber driver. You’re not a lawyer. You’re not a radiologist. You’re not a writer.

So who are you?

I know who I am.

I am nothing.

I’m not a singer? The world doesn’t care to hear me sing? I’ll sing anyway.
I’m not a writer? The world doesn’t care to read what I write? I’ll write anyway.

I am not the things I enjoy doing. I am not the job that I get paid to do. I’m not the emotions I feel. These are useless labels society likes that I refuse to identify with. I don’t do things just because someone appreciates that I do them. People with lack of self-esteem tend to do that.

My advice when the time comes is to do what you want, not for recognition, not for status, not for money — but simply because you’re going to die. Also, you’ll likely be an unimportant person in comparison to AI which will make it even more impossible to find recognition, status and money so there is that.

“Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.”

Aristotle

“You go out into the world and prove to everybody that you're somebody, or go in and realize you're nobody."

Rumi