The sweet surrender to AI robots
This might just be a rant...
I’m tired. Eurgh, so fucking tired.
These days I just have to laugh when when I see clips on social media from some longevity expert/biohacker saying that one of their many “non-negotiables” is getting eight hours sleep…
Lol.
We were woken up at 5am this morning by our youngest and 4am the day before. Eight hours sleep sounds lovely but realistically in order to achieve all of the tasks you want to in a day, it’s a tough ask. Add young children into the mix and you’ve got yourself a big old bowl of “never gonna happen”!
I leave the house between 8-8:30 and return after 6pm. If I could confidently say I wouldn’t be woken up by either of my children before the alarm goes off, we would still only have little over 4 hours to:
Begin preparing dinner, wash/bathe the kids, get them ready for bed, read them a story, get them settled into bed, go downstairs and finish cooking dinner, eat dinner, digest dinner, wash the pots, any other tasks such as fold washing, putting away outdoor furniture or tidying the house of the apocalyptic mess left by above mentioned feral beasts/children, get washed and ready to go to sleep, get to sleep.
Doesn’t sound fair does it? Well it kind of isn’t.
Capitalism has driven exponential innovation but the downside is the big companies get bigger and bigger and gain more power. These big companies have shareholders to keep happy and then at that point, their ultimate goal is to continue to grow the share price at any cost!
Has life always been this hard? It’s definitely been harder in human history but the financial pressures of today do seem disproportionately more severe than say 40 years ago.
For one, it’s now nigh on impossible to make ends meet as a single, (average) income household; something that was commonplace in the past.
There are additional costs to factor in now such as phone contracts, broadband and subscription services.
Energy costs, (particularly where I am in the UK), are truly and utterly obscene. I currently pay 3 times what I paid in 2019.
The average price of a vehicle or a house has gone up exponentially; far ahead of inflation.
Don’t get me started on childcare cost by the way!
All of this means it’s a necessity for all able-bodied adults in the household to work full-time or as near to as possible.
So when is there time to give the house a deep clean? Well I guess that’s the weekend, right? But isn’t that time to spend with the kids that we send to childcare all week? Or even time to spend decompressing from the 50 hours you’ve just put in at work?
I pose the question: Would an AI humanoid robot be a bad thing? He/she would presumably clean the house, do the washing, wash the pots, place repeat orders of things you’re running out of. You know, all the things that adults struggle to make time for.
I have watched The Terminator though so it is a bit of a tricky one to get onboard with I’ll admit.
By the sounds of it they are coming though and probably faster than you’d think.
On the flip side, I have managed to carve out the time to actually write this piece - though largely during work hours I must confess!
And when things are hard and you have to make sacrifices it really does feel like life isn’t fair.
But that’s it, isn’t it? Life isn’t fair!
Life is hard. Did anyone tell it wasn’t going to be?
You’re prepared from a very young age how difficult life is in actual fact:
“Wait until you start school”
“Just wait until you go to big school”
“You’re really going to have to study if you go to university”
“Wait until you’re out in the big world and have to go to work every day”
“If you start your own business, you’ll take your work home with you”
“Things will be different when you have kids”
“Oh, you’ll be bored stiff when you’re retired”
Every step of the way we’re told by some considerate “sage” that the grass isn’t always greener. We’re reminded how much harder the next step of the way is.
This kind of advice is honestly really unhelpful, yet we’ve all done it thinking we’re showing compassion by warning someone of the perils of change. But this is beside the point.
The point is, it’s not easy. A lot of life isn’t exactly enjoyable. I reckon we’re working on a 70/30 split between the tougher times and the genuinely enjoyable/fulfilling times.
That’s a pretty raw deal! But it does kind of make that 30% even sweeter.
It’s actually the worst parts of life that provide context for the best experiences. Without dark there is no light etc.
The lack of sleep afforded to us by young children is a trade-off that any parent would make, any day of the week and twice on a Sunday.
Making sacrifices and hard work is part of life’s rich tapestry and what scares me more than anything is what comes next with the automation of so many jobs and daily tasks. The impact this is going to have on humanity could be completely destabilising to us as a race.
Skynet aside, there’s many reasons to be cheerful and I try and remind myself of these each morning. Before getting out of bed I visualise a list in my mind with five things, (some trivial, some more wholesome) that' I’m truly grateful for. It starts the day on the right note and gives me the best opportunity to see the silver lining of the ominous rain cloud.
Waylon