Why work?
Recently I started to go through posts and questions or Reddit and Quora, to see what kinds of things people were struggling with. Generally, it takes a lot of courage for people to post something that is deeply personal, even anonymously, especially when they have to admit that they are struggling with life. Especially in the United States, partly due to social media but also due to the culture, there is a tendency for people to hide their failures and focus entirely on success. Social media is full of videos that purport to show “the best parts” of life, ones where they’ve caught a fish, or have a wonderful home in which they can lounge around, show off fancy clothing, etc. Sure, there are lots of videos of people failing, but these are not shown in a good light. Either the failures are silly things that only underscore just how much leisure time and excess energy some people have, or they show people breaking the law or being negative in some way.
The overall effect is to paint a picture of the world where nothing profound happens. People are supposed to while away their lives in a state of apathetic unconcern.
But I know that the reality on the ground for most people is very different. While a few are able to enjoy themselves in the way that social media wants to portray, most people really struggle on a day-to-day basis. If you really pay attention to the demeanor of people anywhere—on the bus, in a mall, at a workplace, etc., you will see that there is not much joy in people’s lives. Sure, there is a lot to be grateful for: food is generally easy to find, clean water is always on tap (this is not true of every country in the world), and no matter what, you can basically buy whatever you want without anyone interfering, questioning you or judging your behavior. We have definitely made the world a very comfortable place to live.
Artificial Intelligence will eliminate work
I wrote my first neural network in a computer language called C++ when I was 20 years old, in college. I have kept up with it and understand its basics. And before I quit my job to write the book, my work involved leading a team of data scientists and engineers building an AI system for the legal industry. So I can safely say I have some understanding of what this new development is all about.
While the industry wants to convince us that AI will simply create new jobs, ones that involve essentially evaluating, guiding and training AI in order to perform better and vetting its outcomes and such, the truth is that most of the “jobs” we have now, especially in the white-collar world, are no more than narrative jugglery. All the PowerPoint presentations, business strategy arguments, justifications for proposed projects, performance reports, statistics, etc. are just nonsense. Human beings don’t actually “make decisions” based on narratives. The illusion underlying all this is that people believe they are “working through” an issue, or talking about something in order to come up with a decision. But at the end of the day, people have always made a decision not based on information, but based on feeling. Information serves to manipulate how people feel, so it has an impact of course, but whether someone pays attention to the information or not is dependent on how they are, at that moment.
Just go online to any forum such as Reddit, pull up a question or topic that means something to you, and start reading. As you read people’s posts and arguments, you will find that your feelings are swayed from one side to the other. Unless something is really outrageous, you will generally be able to justify most arguments by presenting an example from your own life. That is, you will be able to argue in several different ways. AI works the same way. You can convince AI to agree, disagree or hang out somewhere in the middle because it will happily find a source or an argument for just about any point of view. If at all it sticks to one point of view, that’s because it has no access to others.
No matter the narrative, an AI system will continue to generate random arguments based on the data its been trained on, as long as the algorithm underneath (which is really not a traditional algorithm at this point) says its ok. In other words, AI systems (as they are nowadays), will simply pick the best narratives based on language prediction, not on true understanding.
Unfortunately, people have been doing the exact same thing for a long time, ever since language became a dominant force on the planet. The reason AI will eliminate jobs is not because it is smarter than people, or that it can make better decisions, but because people have not actually been working for a long time. For the most part, people have been juggling narratives, aka information or just performing menial, repetitive tasks. AI will handily replace both kinds of activity, no problem.
What work really is
There was a time when most of the work we did as human beings was physical. Whether it was hunting and gathering or agriculture, we spent our time encountering physical obstacles and overcoming them using creative means. We had to actually move that rock out of the way, find a different approach to that herd of deer and plant the seeds at the right time. This meant we had to use all our faculties—emotional, physical and spiritual to understand what was going on and try to make a better decision. All this happened silently of course because we didn’t need to talk to each other necessarily.
But when language became available to everyone, suddenly we started to talk. What started off as a way of describing and communicating things became a world by itself. Just like money has become in the modern world, language started off as a means to an end, but became an end in itself. Conceptual understanding took over, ideas such as value and ownership started to become more important than actuality and the world emerged.
Today, of course, the world is entirely made up concepts, ideas and narratives. Even when you buy a product online, most of what you are invested in is the narrative behind the product. You buy because you believe or imagine, not because you understand. And even when the product is in your hand, you don’t really understand how to fully utilize its potential, but are stuck with whatever it is the world says it can do. For instance, there are a million ways of using a knife, but how many of those do you actually put in practice? How many different tools and objects do you have in your home, each of which you are convinced can only do a few things well? How many apps do you have on your phone, whose full potential you will never uncover? People are no longer creative in how they use anything, but are focused entirely on convenience and quick results. In other words, we are not exercising our creativity.
The point of work is to encounter narratives within you—your own ideas, beliefs, etc., come to terms with them, understand why they are keeping you from progressing, and then overcoming them by using your creative energy. It has nothing to do with productivity, coming up with new arguments, finding new data to support your arguments, presenting them in a manner that’s appealing, etc. Much of corporate work though, is exactly that. You don’t make any real progress when you engage in such work—all you do is create more narratives. In other words, all your work is mostly playing with language, not actually getting anywhere.
Real work happens within, in silence. When you sit quietly, whatever you believe in starts to rise to the surface, in the form of thoughts or feelings and begins to dissolve. As they dissolve, you experience them as thoughts and feelings. When they leave you, you feel unburdened, because now a part of your intelligence that was stuck because it believed in something is free. You can now use that part of your intelligence to carve a different path through life. Life opens up and becomes available to you in new ways. You can move forward.
Creative work is the only worthwhile endeavor
When I say creative work, I am not talking about what the world calls creativity. The world’s idea of creativity is mostly recombination; i.e. take something that exists, mix it with something else that already exists, and call it creative output. This is something that AI can easily accomplish, whether it be music, movies, painting, dancing, whatever. Human creativity, is about self-expression. In order to do that, you must be first free of all ideas, opinions, beliefs, etc. When you are no longer bound by narratives, you will feel that there is a current to life, a kind of flow that exists within your energy body. And when that energy is channeled outward in a specific manner, it comes up with things that didn’t exist before.
For instance, ask yourself how the first peoples began to dance. Did they have anyone to teach them, or did they just begin to move naturally? This is an exercise you can try at home, preferably when you are alone. No need to put on music or anything. Just stand in the middle of an empty room and start moving however you wish. If you begin to do a dance that you’ve seen somewhere, you’ll know that you are being influenced by something. Otherwise, you will move in all kinds of weird ways. The point of this kind of movement isn’t performance, but to break free from whatever ideas you have about what is appropriate, dance-like, acceptable, etc. Just move and don’t worry about how it looks.
Over time, human beings took a natural thing and formed rigid rules, stances, facial expressions, hand gestures and so on. Dance, instead of being an existential reality, became an idea. Instead of being a pure endeavor, dance became a performance, one designed to entertain or communicate. But why do you need to entertain or communicate? Just be yourself and you’ll progress much faster—you’ll get more work done when you can move in ways that come naturally to you. You’ll feel freer, have less inhibition, and be more confident in yourself as well.
Try and see this in the context of your workplace and you’ll just how limited and stifling your workplace really is. It is all about performance, not work, and no matter how intelligent you may think you are, you are essentially just a robot, forced to move within established guidelines, using only sanctioned tools, almost as if you are engaged in a ritual. You cannot possibly enjoy such a workplace unless you have blinded yourself to your own suffering.
Little wonder then, that machines are able to take over and do your “job”. You don’t use your human intelligence or creativity at all, but follow rules and guidelines all day. You are better off being replaced by a machine!
So what can we do?
If you wish to continue to work, first of all, take up a job that is mostly physical. It doesn’t matter what the job is—lifting and moving, agriculture, even sport as long its not primarily about performing. Then reduce the amount of time you spend on the job itself, spending most of your time in stillness and silence. This doesn’t have to be your permanent state—I am talking about what it takes to finish your work, i.e. the inner work you must to do to be free of all narratives and live a life in sync with life itself. When you have finished your work, you are enlightened and then, when you have recovered from that experience, you will know what to do on a moment-to-moment basis. Instead of responding to the needs of the world, you will respond to the needs of life itself, aka human beings, plants, animals, stars, etc.
Is this a profitable enterprise? Not by a long shot. I have always been clear about this: you will not get rich on the spiritual path. Those that do, are faking it. It takes a lot of energy to make money, energy you won’t have for your inner work anymore. This is why you must choose either this or that, never both.
But this is what is really needed on this Earth. This addiction to money, profit-making, creating useless objects and artifacts, and generally wasting time and suffering as a consequence must end. You cannot end this exploitative system by continuing to participate in it, while meditating on the side and hoping for relief. Trying to find mental peace and comfort while everyone is suffering is not only apathetic but seriously insensitive, meaning over time you will completely lose your ability to feel. You do not want to end up in that position.
We must create a feminine world, a creative world, one where people are truly able to express themselves without worrying about judgment or performance, one where we can share in all that is being given to us for free on this planet. Commerce itself must come to an end because we simply don’t need to exchange anything—we can freely give away whatever we have and freely receive whatever is given to us. But such a world is not possible until many of us are enlightened and willing to create a happier world. The time to begin making this transition is here now. It will take a long time, but the ground work has to start immediately. I hope you will join me in making this a reality.
