Yep, we’ve most certainly shifted too far in the opposite direction. I mean, all that’s required for most aspects of life nowadays is an internet connection. If one has that, there’s no need to leave the house - I speak from experience, I spent 2020-through-2023 100% locked in my apartment, only needing to leave when seeking medical services. Even the jobs which still require in-person action are slowly being replaced with automation (see delivery bots and drones, self-driving cabs, even LLM-based medical diagnoses).
The only thing I think differs in our views is that I consider hunting and gathering to have been replaced with other activities, like farming, animal rearing, construction, general industry, generation of literature, centralisation of information, basically everything which makes our species persist and advance. It’s still the same basic principle, as in having lost a lot of essential activities and their benefits.
Complexity is an inevitable result of development, and we’ve developed so much that our needs have both expanded and developed with us. I don’t think either hunting or gathering, or both would be enough for us anymore. I most certainly also believe that we don’t need mass production at the scales we’re seeing today, but our complexity demands similar complexity in the palette of professions (not my favourite word to express the concept of “life work,” but there it is…).
I think what we need is to walk back on automation and rethink the whole assembly line bit, give humans some space to specialise should their system need it. Contemporary Society seems better suited to serve people who tend to become Jacks of All Trades, but that’s just one point on a huge spectrum.
Yep, we’ve most certainly shifted too far in the opposite direction. I mean, all that’s required for most aspects of life nowadays is an internet connection. If one has that, there’s no need to leave the house - I speak from experience, I spent 2020-through-2023 100% locked in my apartment, only needing to leave when seeking medical services. Even the jobs which still require in-person action are slowly being replaced with automation (see delivery bots and drones, self-driving cabs, even LLM-based medical diagnoses).
The only thing I think differs in our views is that I consider hunting and gathering to have been replaced with other activities, like farming, animal rearing, construction, general industry, generation of literature, centralisation of information, basically everything which makes our species persist and advance. It’s still the same basic principle, as in having lost a lot of essential activities and their benefits.
Complexity is an inevitable result of development, and we’ve developed so much that our needs have both expanded and developed with us. I don’t think either hunting or gathering, or both would be enough for us anymore. I most certainly also believe that we don’t need mass production at the scales we’re seeing today, but our complexity demands similar complexity in the palette of professions (not my favourite word to express the concept of “life work,” but there it is…).
I think what we need is to walk back on automation and rethink the whole assembly line bit, give humans some space to specialise should their system need it. Contemporary Society seems better suited to serve people who tend to become Jacks of All Trades, but that’s just one point on a huge spectrum.