As information about people will be easier to access (think Google Glass) it will be natural to start grouping strangers together based on various scores. So when you see someone in the store their profile gets pulled up and you see an assessment about them. At that point the individual goes away and their AIDs (Aggregate Identities) become more important because it's just easier. From there instead of trying to grow as an individual people will try to grow in these identities or try and get the right scores to switch identities. If we enter into an age of abundance there will have to be a means of dividing up resources. Since there will be fewer jobs for many people (I ask you to assume this in a broad context but we could unpack it further to see if it has legs) they will fall back on their AIDs to determine what their share of resources should be. There won't be a reward for doing your own thing because doing your own thing won't be recognized in any of these identities. At that point you're just reading from whichever script you believe will get you the most points and you cease to become a human being, you become a neuron.
Let's start with news aggregators to talk about ideas winning out on a massive scale. One thing news aggregators do is act as a sort of activation function for ideas. For a given news aggregator an unpopular idea within the group will get tamped down while a popular idea within the group will get magnified. For example, an article about how Rust is awesome will get more points on Hacker News than an article about how Rust isn't any better than C. So when we use news aggregators we learn how to be heard and what to avoid. It's almost so bad that you can see an inaccurate version of history being written before your eyes sometimes. For example, during the last presidential election Reddit was awash with extremist left wing propaganda because those ideas were rewarded and magnified on that site. Meanwhile any centrist or right idea was immediately tamped down. The aggregator has spoken! Again, we see what to avoid and what to do to get a reward. So we trade our autonomy for internet points. I guess that is why they call it the hive mind.
To me it seems like our ideas are becoming more unified even as our population expands. I think this is because ideas spread easily on social media. But at the same time it's just easier to do things at scale. It's easier to build cookie cutter houses than homes for individuals and honestly it's easier to live in a cookie cutter house in a cookie cutter life and give up some of that autonomy so that you can focus on what matters to you. e.g. so you can specialize or just provide the best possible life for your family. But even in specialties there is a strong demand to conform to popular consensus. That's why, to me, it seems like we are outsourcing many parts of ourselves. We give up a little autonomy here so that we can focus our energy elsewhere but when we're expected to give up our autonomy there too we again become nothing more than extremely hard working, unappreciated, and unfulfilled neurons. *At this point it might sound like I am talking about myself or that I hate my job, lol. Just to clarify, I actually do enjoy my job but I know what it's like to work in a web development dungeon.
The last little bit about Orwell I don't think makes a whole lot of sense now that I look at it again. He surely could have imagined a dystopian future where a power hungry government turns its citizens into slaves by controlling their access to resources based on invasive monitoring of their "behavior". It just seems a little deeper than 1984 to me because of the psychological impact of living a prescribed life and carrying around a fake smile every second of the day.
I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s been getting me down lately - how everyone is just doing the same thing. Echoing the same thoughts (while ironically patting themselves on the back for their perceived intelligence in doing so). Taking the same selfie pose in the same location with the same expression of how exhilarating the experience is.
I’m currently prepping for an interview at one of the big tech companies. It’s hard to push aside the thought that I’m a nobody who at best will spend years nipping at the toes of the hyper privileged individuals who are no more capable than me (in theory), yet who, because of their birth rights (parents, wealth, connections, etc), are in a position of power where their subjective desires will dictate what I do and say with my life (at least 1/3 of it, including the 1/3 where I’m unconscious). It’s even harder to think that as time goes on, this paradigm will only grow further. Just thinking about the updates I’ll make to my resume to pass the test, and how I’ll have to squeeze in the right buzz words all while displaying a cheery demeanor as though this is all a favor to me - it saddens me. And then I consider how in 5, 20, 50 years this whole process will be that much more nuanced and invasive...
It’s not the future I saw in youth. It’s the opposite. I thought the world was one where work produced more for everyone. More wealth, more comfort, more freedom. But it seems inevitable that in a finite space with an ever growing population, that’s not going to be the case. It’s a constant struggle for power. It’s not always the same individuals and groups driving it, but the result is the same every time.
Thank you for the write up. It resonated deeply with me.
I probably should post this from a throwaway, but whatever...burn the boats.
I’m currently prepping for an interview at one of the big tech companies. It’s hard to push aside the thought that I’m a nobody who at best will spend years nipping at the toes of the hyper privileged individuals who are no more capable than me (in theory), yet who, because of their birth rights (parents, wealth, connections, etc), are in a position of power where their subjective desires will dictate what I do and say with my life (at least 1/3 of it, including the 1/3 where I’m unconscious). It’s even harder to think that as time goes on, this paradigm will only grow further. Just thinking about the updates I’ll make to my resume to pass the test, and how I’ll have to squeeze in the right buzz words all while displaying a cheery demeanor as though this is all a favor to me - it saddens me. And then I consider how in 5, 20, 50 years this whole process will be that much more nuanced and invasive...
This describes me exactly. I've been self-employed for over a decade, I do very well at it, I have a growing "side hustle" helping other freelancers and consultants build stronger businesses, and it's close to taking over as my dominant source of income.
But every six to twelve months I just get really, really tired and I think about getting a job at one of the big tech companies. I think I could probably make as much or more over the next 10-20 years as I will working for myself, and it doesn't seem like the worst gig. It seems emotionally much easier than what I'm doing now.
But one of the biggest things that holds me back is the feeling you describe of just being a nobody cog in the wheel. Can I do that? It sounds crushing, but I can't decide if that's my ego, me being unrealistic, me placing too much value and identity on career and work and money, etc.
When I was in my 20s, I had an opportunity to go work directly for a founder of one of these companies. Everyone knows his name. He was looking for a family tech manager to basically manage all the technology for his houses around the world, yachts, private jets, etc. I deliberated for days about even interviewing for this gig. I did, but didn't get the job in the end. Maybe for the best. But the reason I didn't know if I wanted it was that I felt pretty sure that the billionaire across the table never would have taken that job in his 20s. So why was I?
And one of the things I learned that day after spending an hour with this guy was this: he's nothing special. Yeah, he's smart, and he's worked hard, but I didn't see anything there that seemed foreign to me. And that's why I've been self-employed for the last decade, and why I suspect I'll never have a job again. Because it just seems unbearable to accept defeat and get a job working for someone who got lucky, yes, but also didn't just accept defeat and get a job when it was on the table for them.
Thanks for the insight. I’ve only been working independently for a short two years and I’m constantly wondering if I should feel as weak as I do about it. Your analogy is very meaningful. You’re right - that billionaire never would have taken the job. Not that my goal is to be a billionaire (a few million would suffice XD), but more to be in a position where I get to call the shots in my own life.
Sorry for not responding until now...family demands :)
I appreciate the writeup, I find it really interesting, but I can't decide whether I agree. I'll take a stab at explaining my thought process, but I haven't thought this through very much, so bear with me.
On the one hand, I definitely see the phenomenon you're talking about. The access to info we have, and the speed we have to access it, means that more and more of our lives seems to be driven by feedback loops. We also make it worse by naturally gravitating towards loops (like communities) that reinforce our preconceived notions. That's always been a concern but we have so many more options now, and we can find a slice of the world where there's basically no disagreement at all, and then ruthlessly expel anyone who questions our dogma. I see this a lot in certain subreddits: insta-ban if you reasonably question the gospel they espouse. I don't know, maybe there is room in the world for conversation spaces that aren't constantly subjected to the disagreement of outsiders, but it's also a little alarming to see it spreading so fast.
On the flip side though, here are two things that give me pause about your theory.
First, no matter how unfashionable they might be, the laws of physics still operate. Everyone might be flocking to some new-fangled framework, but if it's clearly inferior to another, then there's an opportunity there to go against the grain and win. It doesn't always happen, but it's not that rare. Ditto for your political example: Reddit was (and honestly still very much is) an embarrassing echo chamber of leftist ideas, with very little tolerance beyond a few subreddits (which usually have their own intolerance, just on the other side). But Trump still won! The echo chamber has influence, but the laws of physics ultimately don't care that much.
Second, technology does allow for more individualism. Maybe most people are becoming more "standardized" within the big groups, but others are able to be more honestly who they are, aren't they? So maybe the world is splitting into two parts. The much bigger part is becoming more homogenous and clustered, and then a few people are becoming more individualistic and creative and able to chart their own path.
I don't know though, as I'm writing this, I'm wondering if those people aren't actually more individualist, they're just in a smaller group that behaves the same as the larger one. But is that driven by technology? Or have we always been like this, and technology is just making us better at being terrible?
Anyway, if you're ever in NYC, I'd enjoy chatting about this over coffee or beer :)
