Two AIs
The robots are inevitable, but what future they enable is a choice
Light softly filters into my room, slowly penetrating my eyelids until I crack open my left eye. The windows are almost completely transparent now, offering a beautiful view of clear blue skies.
I yawn, stretch, and get out of bed. 9:50 am has always been the perfect wake-up time. I’m a bit of a night owl, late nights hanging out with friends or playing video games… I like to go to bed around 1 am and then get up at almost 10 am.
In the kitchen I grab a cup of coffee from the replicator. Hand made coffee is always better - it’s the little imperfections in the process that give it character - but for the first cup I don’t care. The replicator coffee is atomically perfect, boring, but this early I just want some caffeine. Bad habit I suppose.
I sit by the window to check in with my dad. I like to watch the carbon capture machines in the sky. The whole carbon capture project is nearly done, so the machines will be gone soon, but they're fun to watch - makes me feel like a kid again, watching construction crews build something near your house back in the capitalist era. Humans used to do the construction then, not robots, but as a kid, we just liked to watch the big machines anyways.
As I watched the carbon capture machines a small notification appeared in the top right of my AR glasses. It was my dad. I only have notifications on for my dad, since he’s in-route to Venus I like to respond right away and see if we can exchange a few messages.
I opened the video message. There he was floating in his tiny cabin.
“Hey kiddo, yesterday I piloted one of the drones in Venus’ upper atmosphere. We’re getting close enough to remote pilot without massive time lag. How’s your game coming along with the clan?”
I make video games with a small hacker clan I met in cyberspace. No one has to work anymore if they don’t want to since the robots and AIs do most things, but everyone does what they like. For me it’s making games; for my dad, it’s continued space exploration. Most of humanity does something in either arts and leisure or the continued pursuit of science.
I hit record, “Remote piloting in Venus’ atmosphere, very cool! Games, going great, dad; I’ll send over the latest build file of the game for you to play test later tonight, my time.”
A few minutes later, “we definitely have downtime on this flight, I liked the last build, so send it over when ready! Love you son, dad out”
The alarm blares, jolting me out of bed. Fuck, what time is it? I squint through the sleep in my eyes at the bedside alarm, the cheap government-issued one directly connected to their citizen time control servers. 4:45 am. I try to roll over and get a few more minutes of sleep.
“Wake up, 85366!” the robotic voice from the alarm cut through me.
“I’m up, I’m up,” I say and glare at the alarm.
I limp into the kitchen and go straight to the replicator.
“One budget coffee please”
“One budget coffee. You have 12 credits remaining”
Only 12? Damn, I need some more gigs.
I call my dad on my AR glasses.
He comes in on the left lens, and kinda on the right; I close my right eye and just look through the left. The right lens has been messed up for months, but I can’t afford to get new glasses.
“Dad, you get a gig for today?”
“Yeah, I did. And there’s another slot open. 20 credits for the day laying pavers in some narrow alleys. You in?”
“Yeah, tell the boss man I’ll be there in 20 mins,” I say and I hang up.
Since “the squeeze” as we call it, most of us can barely scrape by. Robots and AIs do most of the jobs, and there aren’t many left for us plebes, just random stuff the robots can’t do, like apparently navigate laying pavers in a cramped alley. Of course, the PolitiTech elites have bazillions of credits, they control the AIs and robots and government, so they’re fine. No matter how we vote, it’s just the same old shit, getting worse and worse, year after year.
20 credits does sound good though. They’d get me through a couple more days, not enough to save for new glasses… but maybe I can put one or two credits in my savings if I starve a bit.
Whether or not AI and robotics continue to advance isn’t a choice, it’s inevitable. What future we build with robots is a choice, though, we can have a beautiful future.
Some say that technological advancements have always led to new jobs, and AIs will be the same. The car put horse poop shovelers out of business, but enabled truck drivers and taxi drivers to flourish.
AI and robots may put lawyers and McDonald's workers out of a job, but will enable new jobs.
This is probably one of those things that's true until it isn't. Soon robots will be able to do the vast majority of current and future jobs as well as we can, often better, and it could be the best thing to happen to us.
The promise of machines has always been that we humans will eventually have to work less, but it hasn’t come true yet. We just keep right on working.
Why? To keep the system afloat?
Are we inventing jobs just to give people something to do, give them money so they can keep right on buying goods, and perpetuate the system?
Do we have to?
Can’t we just let the robots do the damn work?
We could build a radical new future of abundance where we don’t have to work. Machines can make food, transport goods, create energy, and even make decisions.
We’re not far off from an entirely AI-driven corporation. An algorithm that purchases its raw materials, oversees the production of its goods by robots, sells its product on its own, etc. If there are no humans in the chain what does the algorithm do with its profits? Who does it pay?
Do we just tax the hell out of the AI corporation and give ourselves the money?
At that point do we even need money?
Couldn't the machines do the work and we do what we want, or we do nothing at all.
If we all had our needs met, more of us would likely pursue arts and leisure or scientific exploration, or just sit around like 19th-century aristocrats, eat cucumber sandwiches, and gossip.
We can have the utopian story above, we just have to let go of our current system and embrace a new future. Don’t fear the AIs, but guide ourselves toward a new era of humanity, a new economic system not based on human efforts but just reaping the rewards of the robots.
I yawn and look at the time, 12:54 am. It was a good day. I hit up the gym, had dinner with friends, then worked a few hours on the game.
We had the computer revamp numerous sections of the game’s ending till it felt just right. No one actually develops a game like they used to, writing code, or painstakingly developing assets with 3D modeling software anymore.
We go into the simulation and prompt the AIs and collaborate together in a “conjuring” session as I like to call it. The computers do all the work, we just brainstorm until it sounds good and the AI whips it up, creating the works of our imagination in real time. It’s exhilarating. I almost prefer it to actually playing the games.
We always end up playing a few sessions of some hit games together though before I get tired and call it quits.
I jump in the shower then hit the sack, and fall quickly into a stress-free, deep, restorative sleep.
Loved this!