AI doomers operate under an implicit assumption that technological advancement culminates in a terminal displacement of human activity, rendering human ingenuity obsolete. But this assumption reveals a misunderstanding of the co-evolutionary relationship between humans and technology, a dynamic where displacement is not an end but a pivot. Technology displaces, yes, but it simultaneously enables and redirects.
Consider the printing press, it eliminated the arduous task of manual transcription, which at first might seem to diminish human labor. Yet, it unleashed a renaissance of intellectual creativity, democratized knowledge, and gave rise to entirely new professions like publishing and journalism. In prehistory, the domestication of fire fundamentally altered human life. It displaced the need to consume raw food, transforming the act of survival into an opportunity for culinary experimentation, social cohesion, and the development of tools for cooking and metallurgy. In our postmodern era, streaming platforms have displaced the need for physical media, seemingly simplifying access to entertainment. Yet, they have spurred an explosion of niche content, digital production techniques, and the redefinition of storytelling itself. In each case, technological innovation did not terminate human activity but redirected it toward unimagined domains of creativity and complexity.
Now, as AI supersedes certain forms of cognition, writing, coding, or even medical diagnosis, the doomer assumes this marks an end to human doing. But such reasoning misses the iterative interplay between displacement and reconfiguration. Each technological revolution redirects human attention, extending it into novel domains. What is human today, shaped by millennia of technological mediation, is already unrecognizable from its prehistoric antecedent. Yet, humans remain innovators not in spite of this mediation, but because of it.
The current moment of AI reflects a transformation of the human self. The persona once tied to physicality is now fluid, transmuting within digital spaces and collective imaginaries. Online communities enable new identities and networks of meaning, with technology mediating not just action but the very essence of being. The self becomes a palimpsest, reshaped and augmented by these tools, creating new layers of identity and thought.
AI doomers cling to a static conception of humanity, failing to grasp that human is not a fixed essence but an evolving construct. Technology, far from being an external force, is part of this evolution. Just as the loom gave rise to industrial design and the computer birthed software engineering, AI will reconfigure human doing, thinking, and even being. The human of tomorrow, mediated by AI, will be as different from us as we are from the hunter gatherer.
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