I was talking to a fellow I know the other day and we got around to, of course, artificial intelligence. And he mentioned a book, which is probably very popular, that stated that because of the capability of AI replacing almost all human work, the government will have to pay us for just sitting around. And I revolted at that idea.
Sure, maybe it’s cost effective and in line with how automation is replacing humans. But I saw it as an awful idea. Paying people to do nothing is truly a frightening fate. It brings to my mind the fictional Eloi from H.G. Well’s, “The Time Machine.” Useless people sitting around doing nothing while the real work is done by monsters (of whatever kind) is dystopian to an extent that I cannot believe sane people would accept.
Now, I don’t have all the answers. Obviously technical progress will occur. It’s inevitable. But progress cannot earn that name if it entails the destruction of human happiness. And living like some kind of lab animal with nothing useful to do all day cannot be called happiness. And so, I think we’ve reached a place in human technological ability where we have to start justifying what we create not just by how it increases productivity but also how it maximizes human happiness. And I don’t mean the kind of happiness associated with someone playing a video game. Human beings need to accomplish tasks. This goes for both work and personal activities. We like to work with our hands and our minds and we’re good at it (to greater and lesser extents depending on the individual). But you might say it would be impossible to both efficiently produce the goods and services that our society requires and also maximize the job satisfaction of people.
Well, no. After all the very machines that are supposedly smart enough to replace all of us are also smart enough to optimize algorithms based on human job satisfaction to design the processes and work assignments that would allow this type of job customization to exist. Industry can be forced to accommodate human beings into their processes. But in the future, it won’t be a voluntary acceptance. We will have to use government to force corporations to utilize humans instead of automation. This will involve using the tax code and other manipulations to incentivize this policy. And it will take time to force this mindset to permeate the workplace. But it will be possible to do. Because in a democracy we have the upper hand if we know how to use it. And there’s nothing antithetical to capitalism about this. As long as it’s a level playing field all the companies can compete to make a human-friendly environment and still make whatever profits they want. They just won’t be allowed to do it without human employees.
And what will happen is the companies who provide the most job satisfaction to their employees will preferentially get and retain the highest quality employees. What more could Hal-9000 want from his crew?