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Everyone needs to live a life that has purpose and meaning. The problem sometimes, in modern life, is that our vocation can often feel as though it not only fails to provide those things, but also actively prevents us from having the time ot find them outside of work. This sentiment has been growing among American workers for decades, and is perhaps reaching a zenith in the present among Gen Z.
There was an advertisement a quarter of a century ago that memorably tapped into this sentiment with a lot of humor. It feels more relevant now than ever.
From wiki:
Monster.com is a global employment website that was established in 1999 as a result of the merger between The Monster Board (TMB) and Online Career Centre (OCC). It operated under the ownership of Monster Worldwide, Inc. and functions as a subsidiary of Randstad Holding, a Dutch multinational human resource consulting firm. The company’s headquarters are located in Weston, Massachusetts. One notable aspect of Monster.com is its memorable “When I Grow Up” commercial for Super Bowl XXXIII. This advertisement showcases children discussing their aspirations of the future status of dead-end jobs.
A quarter century on, despite the advertisement, this problem remains. Perhaps not enough people use the website? Or maybe more people need to join the new wave of homesteading?
All of that said, I still aspire to be a yes man when I grow up.
There’s going to be some tough sledding, but this is why I think robots taking everyone’s jobs is ultimately going to be a good thing. Most jobs suck. There may be a Running Man/Smash TV type bread and circuses cybertopia for a bit but then the entire idea of work and money as we know it will fall apart and we can get Star Trek times going.
I think it either goes the way you describe (that’s what I’d hope for), or alternatively the tough sledding goes on forever, and Star Trek times are just a bunch of Datas on starships without the Kirks and Picards. I don’t get the impression that real life AI will have a long drawn out Pinocchio complex or even the desire to be good at being a human.