AI Automation & Mature Images of the Future
You can't fight dystopian fears by putting on the brakes
I recently wrote a reply to a social media post which I want to share. It was a post by a writer & editor who I respect. Like so many the past year or so it was trumpeting the dire future which current Generative AI holds for artists of all kinds. It railed against the intellectual property theft and the loss of artists supporting themselves, and the eventual loss of most jobs and freedom in all sectors to an alliance of uberwealthy authoritarian elites profiting from and kept powerful by ever more capable elites.
It is a big fear. I feel your pain. Literally. I’m a long-term unemployed Futurist who can’t land a job in either my old field (I.T.) or Strategic Foresight. Having ever constricting options and ever growing needs is terrifying. The world seems to be closing in on most with a terrible implacable building momentum.
Yeah, but the optimistic futurist in me hates doom & gloom scenarios. So here is the vague, but optimistic agency I offered up:
The prompting question I like to ask about overwhelming "tsunami" futures is, "What mature images of this future already exist?"
There are plenty of dystopian ones of automation directly or indirectly destroying what we value. There are others where we tame both the automation and our authoritarian tendencies to create better futures; ones where we take the "good parts" and abjure the harmful & unhealthy parts. Those tend towards futures where civilization's average prosperity and values ascend towards a higher, more healthy level.
Star Trek is usually the default one points to for techno-utopian futures. So what does it say about the automation future?
Automation replaces most jobs, but is constrained to create material & experiential abundance for all. Original works by organic intelligences, be it a good meal or artwork or scientific discovery, are prized above the abundant perfection produced by automation. Work for that future, but chart a path to it that minimizes harm along the way”
Low on specifics, yes, but acknowledges that these same creatives have already explored multiple better futures where humanity as a whole constrains its baser nature and empowers its better nature. These images had to survive the harsh battleground of the marketplace so much so that “scifi” is no longer considered a slur, but a marketing advantage for those works.
Stories are our base tool for exploring the world and its possibilities. Trust that we can worldbuild the real world with the robust worldbuilding tools which we have, including that feared automation.
As Picard would say, “Make it so!”