Automation has always resulted in a decline in human creativity and craftsmanship, going back to when weavers were replaced with textile factories. Marx described alienation from a worker's productive activities long ago. But that automation always took a physical form, and so our society stopped giving status to people with impressive physical skills (unless they can be used in sports). There really aren't many good, widespread jobs which require use of the hands, other than medicine. Everyone else sits at a computer.
But after being told to pursue a career of the mind, that is being devalued too! I don't think AI is going to replace that many workers, but the cultural trend to disparage knowledge work and try to force it to be automated is going to sap the self-worth of a bunch of people who used to feel pride in their work. At this point, what kind of work does anyone aspire to?
Automation has always resulted in a decline in human creativity and craftsmanship, going back to when weavers were replaced with textile factories. Marx described alienation from a worker's productive activities long ago. But that automation always took a physical form, and so our society stopped giving status to people with impressive physical skills (unless they can be used in sports). There really aren't many good, widespread jobs which require use of the hands, other than medicine. Everyone else sits at a computer.
But after being told to pursue a career of the mind, that is being devalued too! I don't think AI is going to replace that many workers, but the cultural trend to disparage knowledge work and try to force it to be automated is going to sap the self-worth of a bunch of people who used to feel pride in their work. At this point, what kind of work does anyone aspire to?