Workers in 2024 are destined to be more difficult than ever.
The emergence of Sora means that video practitioners are about to face a major reshuffle, and Chatgpt, which came out last year, has already caused many earthquakes in related industries.
Countless migrant workers are worried, not knowing whether there is a way out for carbon-based life under the threat of silicon-based life.
In Liu Cixin's short story "Supporting Mankind", he has already given a cruel reference answer -
Labor force is constantly being replaced, and workers will gradually be eliminated by society.
Safe food, health, education, and free play are all starting to become luxuries.
This is a sad prophecy, but it pokes at the fear of countless migrant workers in reality.
Society is changing wildly, and we, who are as small as dust, seem to be crushed by the times no matter how hard we try.
In the face of crisis, where can ordinary people go?
If you understand "Supporting Mankind", maybe you will have the answer.
1
You never know,
When will the black swan turn life upside down
The story takes place in a time and space that is incomparably similar to the present.
On the earth in the book, there is also class division, and there is a disparity between the rich and the poor.
The rich have a lot of social resources and can turn the clouds and rain upside down, while the poor are struggling but can only seek food and clothing.
On this day, an extremely absurd phenomenon suddenly appeared on the earth.
Thirteen of the world's richest people have joined forces to divide their wealth among the poor.
Countless poor people have become worth a hundred times in an instant in astonishment and ecstasy.
However, there are three homeless people at the bottom who refuse wealth.
They have no job, no income, and can only recycle rancid food and waste paper and plastic at the garbage dump in exchange for a little money to stay alive.
They are reluctant to receive handouts from the rich because some people need to draw inspiration from poverty to create art, and some people simply want to disgust the rich and simply say no.
But what awaits them is death.
In just a day or two, the three homeless men were killed by the killers sent by the thirteen richest people.
Before that, the homeless and the rich had no grudges, not even the slightest intersection.
The seemingly inhumane massacre hides a shocking crisis behind it.
It turned out that not long ago, a group of aliens who had lost their homes fled from a distant alien planet to Earth.
They rely on advanced force to occupy the earth, and propose to support all earthlings according to the current minimum living standards of earthlings.
Earth's governments are powerless to resist and can only temporarily hide the news from the public so as not to cause social panic.
The only thing they can do is to average all the wealth to each person in the shortest possible time before the aliens carry out a census of the lives of earthlings.
As a result, the homeless who refuse to accept wealth have become an obstacle to raising the global minimum standard of living, which has been ruthlessly removed.
What a sad truth!
An accident has occurred on a distant planet, and as a result, many civilizations on Earth are about to be destroyed light years away.
The well-intentioned decision of the rulers of the earth actually killed three ordinary people who were living at the bottom and struggling to make ends meet.
It's obviously irrelevant, and there is no warning beforehand, but once it happens, it brings thrilling destruction.
In economics, there is a term called "black swan events".
It refers to an extremely small probability of something, once it happens, it will cause a chain reaction and bring great negative impact.
It can be as heavy as freezing rain at the beginning of the year, the epidemic in the first few years, or the financial turmoil that swept several countries.
As small as a layoff, a car accident, or a serious illness, a person's life can fall into the mud.
In the labyrinth of fate, I don't know where a black swan rises up angrily and tears reality apart.
There is never an eternal quiet time in this world, but when the mountain rain is about to come, many people are ignorant.
2
The essence of most crises in life is to reduce dimensionality
In "Supporting Mankind", the magnates and tycoons of all countries on the earth are trying to achieve "equal wealth and poverty" for all mankind with unprecedented sincerity and efficiency.
Unbeknownst to them, alien spies have already infiltrated Earth, and one of them has also met the killer of the homeless man in the garbage dump.
This was the first direct contact between the two civilizations, and there was no bloody fight or game of interests.
The two chatted casually like old friends, and in the conversation, they also uncovered the truth of this catastrophe that spanned two civilizations.
It turns out that the spies come from an extremely distant and technologically advanced planet.
The people there believe that "private property is sacrosanct" and that as long as a person owns property, he or she is protected by the law.
Under the effect of the Matthew effect, the wealth of the rich is getting bigger and bigger, and the poor are getting poorer and poorer.
As AI replaces productivity, the poor are in even worse shape.
The real outbreak of the crisis came after the transformation of the way education was conducted.
By simply implanting a supercomputer in the brain, people can easily acquire a wealth of knowledge and amplify their intelligence and thinking.
But this kind of equipment and machines are expensive, so that super-education is completely the privilege of the rich.
People who have completed a super-level education are very different from ordinary people in terms of intelligence, artistic perception, etc.
The ability of the rich to accumulate wealth is getting stronger and stronger, and the poor have no power to counterattack when they fall behind.
What is even more terrifying is that the rich and the poor have gradually become two species of people who cannot share the same mind, and the compassion that applies to their kind is tolerant and disappears.
Finally, there is a "final producer" who monopolizes almost all of the world's wealth, and also controls most of the water, land, and air......
The other two billion people were all reduced to poverty, driven out of their home planet by the "Finalists" without mercy.
And when these poor people came to the earth after hardships, they found themselves in absolute superiority in science and technology and force.
They immediately treated the earthlings with the same cold attitude, and they also had a plan to "support mankind" to exterminate humanity.
The relatively backward earthlings can only be reduced to inferior species indiscriminately, accepting the fate of being captive and enslaved.
What a thrilling prophecy, what a blood-drenched warning.
For many years, we have grown up with all kinds of comparisons, all kinds of competitions.
After a long time, I realized that what really brought us down was never a visible threat, but a catastrophe beyond cognition.
Just like 20 years ago, the home appliance giant Gome Suning was surging, but unexpectedly, the rise of e-commerce changed the entire home appliance industry, making the business of chain stores declining.
Several major instant noodle brands used to fight in full swing, but as a result, the rise of takeaway has impacted the instant noodle market in all directions.
Countless assembly line workers, telephone customer service, and junior copywriters have worked diligently for many years, and in the end, they have been expelled from their jobs by AI.
The world is indeed unpredictable, and life has never been difficult.
In addition to birth, old age, sickness and death, natural disasters and accidents, most of the tribulations encountered in life stem from a lack of cognition.
The dimensionality reduction blow beyond cognition is the biggest crisis in life.
3
Learn to evolve oneself in order not to be eliminated by the times
"Supporting Mankind" mentions that on the first earth, efficient robots can do everything, and the poor don't even have the opportunity to sell their labor.
In reality, more and more jobs are facing the challenge of artificial intelligence.
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 70% of jobs will be eliminated in the future.
The times have gone like a great river, and they are unstoppable. What can we do to prevent problems before they happen.
Here are three small suggestions.
1. Pull out the electronic "nipples" and counter the humanity behind the algorithm.
In "Supporting Mankind", a very terrifying scene is described.
The end-of-life monopoly on all outdoor space, and the poor are confined to confined spaces, peeking out of their windows into the small river.
In real life, many people choose to shrink into a corner instead.
They hold the screen from morning to night, immersed in the joy brought by games, short videos, movies and variety shows.
Sociologically, there is a well-known strategy of "nipple fun".
This means that 80% of wealth will be concentrated in the hands of the elite 20% as productivity increases.
In order to divert the discontent of the marginalized, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to the President of the United States, proposed to create a large number of sensory, addictive "nipple" products to fill the lives of the poor like feeding babies.
As a result, more and more electronic "nipples" are produced and distributed to equipment terminals with the blessing of algorithms.
Countless people are intoxicated with the illusory world, and they are also in peace with themselves.
Writer Shui Muran said that intelligent civilization is the civilization of castrating people.
It castrates ordinary people's thinking about real problems and gives up their motivation to change the status quo.
If you want to jump out of the trap, you can only bravely pull out the electronic "nipple" and fight against the humanity behind the algorithm.
Only by being willing to face life and facing oneself can we find the direction of future improvement.
2. Learn to "go into the city sparrow" and embrace technology and change.
Have you noticed that in the reinforced concrete city, there are few wild birds, except for sparrows?
The reason is that the constant noise in the city and the light pollution at night are deadly threats to most birds, and they have to stay away.
Only sparrows can take the initiative to change themselves and adapt to the crowding and noise of the city...... It's easy to live in the city.
The challenges encountered by sparrows are not the dilemma that each of us is facing at the moment.
Technology is changing with each passing day, and productivity is iterating rapidly.
Almost every industry is being reshaped by AI, and every migrant worker is involuntarily involved.
But it also means that there are new possibilities in every industry.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that AI will not take your job, but the people who use AI will take away your job.
Instead of fearing to be replaced by AI, it is better to embrace collaboration with AI to learn and work more efficiently.
As the old saying goes, the water can fill the golden mountain, but it can't cover the back of a duck.
To be a wave-treading person who conforms to the times, you can dance with the times.
3. Think against AI and use wisdom to break down the barriers of class.
Some time ago, at a gathering of friends, a senior said something very heart-wrenching:
Most people's work and life are not fundamentally different from artificial intelligence.
The same is to accept fixed instructions (such as KPIs at work, fixed housework and personal contacts in life), and the same is to do repetitive things every day.
Many people seem to have worked hard for decades, but in fact there is hardly any growth.
When AI, which has huge data storage capacity and processing speed that can crush humans in all aspects, comes into reality, they can only lose completely.
The only way to break the situation is to think in the opposite direction of AI, actively exert people's unique creativity and emotional power, and fundamentally change the division of labor among individuals in social productivity.
Improve yourself through cross-domain reading and learning, and have the ability to adapt and innovate existing work.
Improve empathy and deep communication skills with others to guide AI to accomplish goals more efficiently.
You can use artificial intelligence to amplify the longboard and ride the dust in the field you love, or you can use professional programs to make up for the shortcomings and take your existing position to the next level.
Strive to be the leader of AI, not a low-level homogeneous competitor.
Sooner or later, you will be able to use your wisdom and ability to break down the barriers to class ascension.
▽
The story of "Supporting Mankind" is not long, only writing that the killer is touched by one of the homeless men, and in turn the assassination of the rich man ends abruptly.
As for whether the earthlings have finally fallen into the miserable situation of "being supported", the author has left it blank.
The alien invasion may be just a fantasy, but there is a sentence in the book that is deafening.
The book mentions that education is the only way for the lower strata of society to reach the upper strata.
Education here is not a staged exam, but a lifelong learning that constantly empowers oneself.
Technology is indeed replacing simple and repetitive work, and it is likely that the "stagnant" human will be eliminated in the future.
But it can't weed out people who are always innovating and improving.
Writer Li Yue said that in this era, if you run ahead, you will find that there are opportunities everywhere, and everything is thriving. If you're behind the times, you'll find it difficult.
From now on, we will continue to grow up, constantly broaden the boundaries of cognition, and always be curious and thinking about the unknown.
Only by always being at the forefront of the times can we seize or even create opportunities and continue to leap forward by riding the east wind of the times.
Give it a thumbs up and encourage your friends.
Author: Insight Shuyin