Functioning without function

Role-less.

For all of history, humans have defined themselves via their functions. A hunter is a hunter, an accountant is an accountant, a clown is a clown. That might come to an end. The concept of jobs is disappearing as we speak, slowly, very slowly, but unmistakably. Layoffs are everywhere and happen across all of society, from computer scientists to marketing bullshitters such as me. That is reality. The economy plays a role, as it does with everything else, but this time might be different for there might not come a recovery.

Automate everything.

Substitute.

Replace.

Profit.

AI.

— replace intelligence.

So what do we do? How do we define ourselves? What role do we assume in society, in our inner circles, within us?

The first question is often the same: “So, what do you do?”

“Oh, I work in marketing.”

“Oh.”

What happens when you cannot answer that question? Who the fuck are you? Who am I? A partner, a brother, a son, a cousin, a friend — yeah, but who am I?

Not in a philosophical but a practical sense. What good do I do? How do I benefit society? What is my role in keeping this whole, somewhat messed up, human project going? It is evolution that asks these question and we want them, need them, demand for them to be answered. For the ego. And is there anything else?

We will be role-less. We will be bored. We will be angry.

We need something to do, something to strive towards, even in a rejection of the system we need that. Purpose. Something to do, at least.

We can all become researchers. Adventurers. Artists. But this will be for hedonism, not function, and so it will feel not entirely useful. Hedonism is nice, but not in the long-term. Why put a human on another planet when it’s far easier to put a human-adjacent robot there? Why discover the most hidden secrets of mathematics when a next-token-predictor can do it? It can tell us what is sees, then, and we will watch only from a third-person view, from then on, perhaps forever. Nothing we do will feel significant, and it will not feel ours.

If that happens a lot of things will happen and many of them not pleasant or nice. But that, too, will pass. Perhaps we are next-token-predictors.

And so we can perhaps become more partner, brother, son, cousin, friend, too. Spend more time, effort, goodwill on these things for they at least appear safe for now.

And, who knows? There might be something to do for us, still.

Antonio Melonio