You’re a Pattern
The part of you that can be measured, at least
What can be observed about you is a pattern. Maybe a design pattern. Maybe a pattern of you carrying out your cultural imprint. Maybe imitating other design patterns.
Some of you is a very niche and complex pattern. Most of you, if you haven’t been isolated from culture or media for the last 30 years, is not so complex.
You can be learned and imitated quite well. And this is nothing to feel bad about, it just is.
AI is quite good at coding web apps and the connectors that run it because that’s most of what it’s been trained on. Is it as good as the best devs? No. Is it better than many devs? Yes. Is it 1000x faster than any of them? Yes. Will it evolve into something terrifyingly good at pattern recognition and reproduction that makes today’s conversations feel quaint?
I’d put some money on it.
Is it currently good at making art from a lazy prompt? Not spectacular. Is it good at making art with a skilled operator at the knobs and sliders? Yeah, not too shabby, actually. Good enough.
The code works. The images entertain. Your impeccable taste and powers of discernment notwithstanding.
Are you unique and special? Yes. In a few years would most people be able to distinguish your writing or “artistic contribution” from an AI imitation?
No.
This is where the intangible, ineffable layer of who you are and what you were made for emerges. It might sound corny, but this is the final reckoning.
I believe this phase of technological advance is not God, but divinely ordained and sent to teach the lesson of all lessons: You are not your uniqueness, or what the sum of you can do on Earth or what can be measured, and the reason we’re going through this exercise is that man can never accept this until the earthly form is fully exhausted, measured in full.
No solution in socialism or UBI, nor guaranteed abundance.
You will be exhausted of all your former preoccupations, and your successors won’t feel compelled to prolong any of the battles you currently fight, they’ll feed their families for as long as they can. All of this will happen for a purpose. Not necessarily the apocalypse or the much-anticipated end times, but learning.
It’s by far my most optimistic belief.