Published 2026-10-03
Tags: #life-reflection
Now and then you see news about AI displacing human jobs, and you might wonder “Huh. When AI can do everything I can do, what even is the point of learning or doing anything?” Is this sense of despair warranted? Or are there activities that will remain meaningful to do?
Examples of replacement. Bill Gates said “AI for the first time can replace and even exceed human cognition … Many jobs will disappear forever.” Heck, it doesn’t look like even the creative sector is safe. See some reactions from jazz professionals (Patrick Bartley, Peter Martin) and this is from 2025!
Analogy: outsourcing. Sometimes it can be helpful to replace the word “AI” with cheap, intelligent human helpers. Pretend there is a magical consulting firm where you can hire some highly qualified human employees for $20/month to do any job you want. No employer is willing to pay you more than this salary, and you yourself can hire these workers. In this fictional world, are all your daily activities replaceable? Well, a huge chunk probably is, but there are certainly other activities that you will still continue to do. We get the sense that some activities require -you- to participate for them to be meaningful. Let’s dig deeper into what these are.
1. Play / fun. Just because AI is better at chess than humans doesn’t mean playing chess is no longer fun. Just because someone can play video games or do jazz improvisation better than me doesn’t mean that it’s meaningless for me to practice or play with my friends. I do these activities because -I- want to go through the experience myself. I don’t want another being to take my place in these moments. Only I can do the job of feel-ing.
2. Self-reflection / exercise agency. I want to be able to choose how I live my life. To do this, I need to reflect on how I have lived so far, and deliberate on my own values and desires. I want to have freedom in picking my own tastes and sense of beauty, rather than relinquishing it to an intelligence that is optimized for some goals that I don’t care for (like maximizing engagement time).
3. Self-expression. I want to create things that feel like a part of me. Activities like writing this blog post, or creating a VGM cover with a vision I’m stoked about – these require my consciousness to produce, and feel deeply meaningful to do.
4. Me-to-other-human activities. It matters to me that -I- am the person playing the piano next to the band mates. It matters to me that -I- am the person talking to my partner. It matters to me that -I- am the person talking to a friend who is going through a hard time. It also matters to me that these intelligent entities that I get to love and play with not only have stable memories and bodies, but are also imperfect, mortal humans like me.
5. Grow. To grow, I need my mind to be actively participating. I cannot let someone else do the thinking or practicing for me. By practicing piano, I get to have more fun jamming with my friends, and express myself through more creative improvisations. By reading and thinking, I get to develop a more nuanced set of values and preferences. I get to produce thoughts that are more unique, and see the beauty in more things – jazz is a great example - the more theory I know, the more solos I get to appreciate. By interacting with other humans, and reflecting on them, I get to be a better human to be around. To be transformed, -I- have to be the entity present in all these activities.
Conclusion. I want to feel, co-feel with other humans, and be better at both of them. No one - not other humans, not AI - can take this away from me.