Artificial intelligence and work in the future
In recent centuries, we have been experiencing real processes of change in society and in the world. From the first moment of industrialization in 1765 with the introduction of coal, steam engines and production lines to what we consider to be the third industrial revolution with the introduction of atomic energy, computers and telecommunications, that the world has as a force of change a new, more powerful, source of energy. But will this be the engine for the next industrial revolution? I don’t believe it…
I believe that we are already experiencing a new industrial revolution but, today, it is based on a new paradigm. For the first time in history, it is not energy that is changing the world, but computing and computers. As Marc Andreessen so aptly summarized: “software is eating the world”. It is with this in mind that I invite you on a philosophical journey about the impact of software, and more specifically of artificial intelligence, on the world and on society.
I like to define artificial intelligence as the ability of a digital machine to perform a task normally associated with intelligent beings, namely the ability to see, act, communicate, infer and learn.
In order to understand how this technology can impact humanity, I believe we must take refuge in philosophy, more specifically in the schools of thought of dualism and monism.
Dualism arises in the Greek school of thought with Plato, Aristotle and Descartes where they argue that the mind and the body are two distinct and not identical entities. Plato speculates on the existence of a world of ideas that contains things that do not exist in the real world, such as a perfect circle. A truly perfect circle will never exist in the real world, but it does exist in our imagination.
Monism, in turn, appears with Heraclitus and is developed several centuries later by thinkers such as Spinoza and Berkeley, where they defend that the mind and the body are manifestations of a single entity. Fundamentally, everything in the universe is made up of atoms and everything is subject to the same set of laws of physics. Even our emotions and dreams are just brain synapses and chemical reactions. In this context, everything can be broken down into its fundamental components, where a chair uses the same fundamental elements as a human being.
Will it be us humans, machines, animals or humans? Based on the two currents of thought, we can infer that, on one hand, a machine can behave like a human, or, on the other hand, a machine will never have access to the world of creativity and emotions that characterize us so well. But what does all this have to do with artificial intelligence and its impact on the job market? In fact, everything!
Monism defends a union between the body and the mind, which leads me to think that artificial intelligence can leave humanity without work, with the world having to reorder itself and find new ways of physical and emotional sustainability (we talked about a single universal income, for example). If we are made of exactly the same fundamental elements as the rest of the universe, there are solid reasons to believe that a machine could one day take our place, in many cases being better than us humans.
Now, if we look at the same problem with a dualistic lens, I believe that not all jobs will be taken over by machines. Since humans are fundamentally different from machines, there will always be work that machines will not be able to do. Thus, there will always be a haven for humanity, where machines will not be able to access our mental, abstract and creative world. I believe that many sectors will be transformed by artificial intelligence (such as industry, retail, services, among others), but many more will be created based on human sensitivity.
It is with this duality of perspectives that I leave you. With the certainty that we are on the verge of the greatest industrial and societal revolution in recent centuries. It is important to be aware of this duality of thinking that shapes our beliefs, conversations and predictions about impact on the world. I, personally, am a humanist. I believe in dualism and the existence of a creative, emotional and imaginative world. Although artificial intelligence will wipe out many jobs, many more will be created precisely based on these characteristics that make us human.
This article was originally published at Dinheiro Vivo.
