I hope AI will create boredom again.
I am not quite retired, though at this point I don’t have any retirement income. I find myself fretting endlessly when I am not engaged in some kind of work. I think I have to generate income all the time or everything will come crashing to a halt.
We have all seen good and bad times. My experiences include having lived in a homeless shelter during an illness that even today is making me wonder about my lifespan. I have people that want my time, and I feel as though there are demands from my parents, children and grand children that leave me little time for my own thoughts. But today, while I paced around the house wondering what to do with myself, my wife said “you are a person that needs a hobby!”
On that point, there is an anxiety built into my psyche, and my personality, related to the 24x7 world, the always on, neon existance of our world. I remember as a teenager, I would sit on a patch of grass looking at a lake, or a beach at the ocean, and just daydream into the afternoon. I didn’t feel rushed, no anxiety, no concerns.
Ticking away
It reminds me of the song “Time” by Pink Floyd. I was “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.” These kinds of moments are never what I think about today. I cannot allow myself to just sit and daydream. But over the past week, I heard about a neighbor that I am quite fond of, who I talk to occasionally when he walks his dog, had a heart attack and stroke.
The lines “You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today” and then “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you”. The urgency of life hits like a tidal wave, rushing at you as you realize, “I am going to die, and maybe not too far out in the future.”
All of that suddenly makes you want to bring all of your family close. All of your desires to be with the people you love becomes a white hot poker in your face. Making decisions that perhaps might not be so good, just to have the people around you that you want, because you know you may drop dead tomorrow.
If UBI or UHI is real, hurry the hell up!
When I hear the “captains of industry” talking about universal basic or high income, and the idea that the cost of goods and services are supposed to go to near zero, I can’t believe it. Douglas Rushkoff wrote an article a while back about Billionaire Bunkers. Why would they need bunkers if AI is supposed to bring us to a “golden age”?
I know in that other article they were talking about nuclear war, climate change, and the AI singularity/apocalypse. But there are some questions about how this all works. But in the end, if any of this is possible, wouldn’t it be nice to have the time to actually spend with the ones you love?
I don’t know if the price of convenience is worth the price of UBI, but it sure seems as though things cost way too much. Not in dollars, but in time. in Hiro Usui’s article “I Thought 2 AM Convenience Was Civilization. Norway Proved It Wrong.”, the idea that we are so obsessed with convenience that we forget what it is like to just be together.
The anxiety of boredom
My grassy or beach musings while staring at a body of water are nearly impossible today. I have a view outside my window that would be a perfect “staring into the sunset” kind of view. Yet, here I sit, focused on my 4 screens, typing away. Why? Because I need a hobby? Or because my brain is addicted to the frenetic activity.
The mindset of “I will sleep when I am dead” is a euphemism that strikes me as a mental parasite. We are always threshing about trying to solve this problem, be prepared for that situation. Everything is always this great rush. So much so that when I think about going on a cruise with my wife, I get a sense of anxiety because I cannot imagine what the heck I will do.
I don’t drink, I get bored watching a play or musical, I can’t sit still and just stare off into the ocean. I don’t need to feel like people should wait on me hand and foot, and I love to cook for myself because the food should be maximally healthy, you know? Just as Elle (Anel) Nagy said in her article “I will sleep when I’m dead”, there is no desire to just sit still and be.
I will go as fast as I can and as far as I can, until I can’t
This was “my” motto while working. I pushed and pushed and pushed because I lived those lyrics from “Time”. “No one told you went to run, you missed the starting gun” was a life lesson to me. I had a period of time where because of an illness at 27, I lost EVERYTYHING. When I got my self straight almost three years later, I vowed to not let that ever happen again.
So I started to accelerate. I moved faster and ran harder than many of my peers. I had no sense of patience. I wasn’t there for my ex wife. Or my kids. So much so that when I lost my oldest son at 30, I barely stopped to grieve. Heck, I don’t know if I ever really did.
AI and Purpose. Is it for TIME?
So when I think about AI today, about how everything is headed to this great “singularity” and how we are all going to be doing nothing all of a sudden, I am kinda looking forward to it.
Today, I am consciously trying to slow down. I still have ambitions, but I also get chest pains. I seem to want everything still, but I don’t want to work for it anymore. I want to enjoy time with my loved ones. To walk and appreciate the walk.
I want go back in time and figure out how my brain was able to stare at the ocean and just
Relax.