People keep worrying about AI stealing their jobs.
But honestly, that's not the real issue here.
The real question is what happens to the value of everything you own once it does that.
Let me break it down for you.
Throughout history, every new tech came with the same promise.
It won’t put you out of work, it’ll just boost your productivity. And every time, that turned out to be true.
The loom sped up weavers, tractors helped farmers scale up, and spreadsheets made accountants way more efficient.
See a trend?
Each tool needed a person to operate it.
That’s the crux of it. That’s why wages increased in the first place.
Not because of some nice policies or a government handout.
Capital needed labor, and since labor was limited, it drove wages up in a world filled with more goods.
But AI is different; it’s the first tool that doesn’t require a human touch.
So let’s focus on the real question here.
When what made your work valuable is gone, what’s still rare?
What can AI simply not replicate?
It can’t create more land.
It can’t generate more Bitcoin.
That’s pretty much it.
Now let's do the mental exercise that nobody wants to think about.
Your salary reflects the worth of your time. AI is like a machine that creates time.
Endless time. Time that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t unionize, and won’t negotiate.
What’s your time gonna be worth in a world where time is unlimited?
Meanwhile, an acre of land is still just one acre. An apartment remains one apartment. And those 21 million Bitcoins? They’re still capped at 21 million.
"But they’ll support us with UBI. It’s on the way."
Okay, let’s pause there for a moment.
Where does UBI actually come from?
It gets printed.
Wow. What a great write up. But there's something worth pointing out. In a situation where AI takes jobs and people feel comfortable being poor because of how cheap things will be, there's another factor that can create and preserve the assets one has, which is called adaptability.
The ever adaptable will survive any economic shift by learning new skills, managing their finances well, and so on. So to actually acquire those assets, you have to be adaptable. And if you already have those assets, you still need adaptability to preserve them.
Some really great wake-up call!!
Im really impressed by this writeup and tbh everything you said up here is worth noting.
Im also tired of hearing bored talk about this whole AI will take peoples jobs and you need to develop your skills to get hired in the future because with this changes the real problem isnt about learning how to integrate and adapt to using AI (as youve already mentioned thatll become a baseline) rather its about what you own today that can truly give you a upper hand in the future, Land have proven to do that for as long as humanity has existed and Bitcoin is proving so since from its inception..
P.S: I got goosebumps while reading this, I was in complete awe
You cant just jump into the process of buying lands and bitcoin without approaching how you can learn to adapt to the future, its very important but I think the OP focuses more on the other side that people dont talk about often .
I'm glad I have 1 acre
I'm glad I can grow food
I'm glad I know some medicinal wild plants
I'm glad I have Bitcoin
AI though is t just quite at the stage of widespread job replacement.
realistically it isnt even at the stage of writing a detailed report on a subject, it really good
at reporting on a single page document, after that it hallucinates... but that may be just the
AI Joe Soap gets to use.
But I do believe the writing is on the wall ...
So, the best plan for future:
1. Buy some land, or real estate property.
2. Buy bitcoins, as many as possible, or even portions of it.
3. And finally, learn to use AI.
The first two will take care of you in case you lose your job to an AI in the future, and the last one will create a possibility of you finding a new source of income, people are already doing it with AI, creating content, monetizing it, and making money from that, and in the future, it will be even wilder. One thing I agree with is that once everyone learns to use AI, it will be too saturated that every area will be too competitive and chances of you making through that competition will surely be tiny, but there can still be hope.
After all, if that doesn't work, you will at least have the other two options covering things up for you and taking care of everything.
These are indeed wise words that no one should overlook. You have already nailed it, and one thing I am taking away from it is the importance of owning something that AI cannot control.
Whether we like it or not, AI has come to stay, and it will continue to improve over time. As it advances, it will spread across several sectors of the economy, and we cannot stop that. While that time draws near, everyone should start preparing for the day when many of our sources of income may be taken over by AI.
Now that we have the freedom and can accumulate some bitcoins, we should do so because owning bitcoin remains one asset that is truly yours, without AI being able to tamper with it. Land in my country belongs to the government, one day they can demand for that land you think is yours for developmental purposes and you can't stop the government.
Hard to disagree.
Reminds me of a YT channel/person I came across recently that really, really resonates. His name is Julian Whatley.
Here's one: The Rise of Techno-Feudalism: The Death of Markets
Another: Is AI the New Opiate?
Basically, what we're seeing now with much of "AI" - more accurately "LLM" as it's not actually "intelligence" - is something very similar to the rise of the priest class and religion itself years and years ago.
We have tech CEOs and all their followers saying how "AI is inevitable!" ... "AGI is coming and it's basically, like, god, bro!" ... "It's going to cure disease!" ... "You can upload your consciousness into a utopia!"
Should sound familiar.
Musk is the "work hard, work harder, sleep on the factory floor! keep working and you can leave this planet!" priest.
Altman is the "have faith and be humble... all will be well if you believe" priest.
They all need tithes investment to keep the charade gods markets happy.
In a nutshell, the future is ownership. If you don't get one now, you aren't getting it in the future. Everything will be bought up by corporations including the precious Bitcoin.
If there is a time when we really need to keep stacking wealth to prepare for the future, right now is the best time to do.
The AI rave is growing everyday that you feel left behind if you are not learning these skills. It's not bad to acquire some of them that will make you do your job faster. However, the OP has raised some important points that are worth considering. As people begin to rush into the AI industry, supply will exceed demand, which will lead to a drop in earnings.
I have also learned that the focus should be on acquiring assets with limited supply. Land and Bitcoin stand out among their equals. I have nursed the idea of growing my food for a long time, but combining farming and work might become very stressful. But my focus now would be to acquire cheap land in rural areas. I don't want to be part of the comfortable poor.
A long and interesting argument. But I find it a bit contradictory that all the effects will resonate depending on how technology and society adapt. So, society that keeps up with the developments will continue to be able to compete. AI is an innovation and it will continue to evolve. Jobs will decrease, but new jobs will also emerge. So we just need to adjust ourselves and keep growing. Maybe ownership of truly rare or productive assets will become increasingly important compared to just relying on income from work. History shows that every technological revolution also creates new types of jobs, business models, and investment opportunities. The main challenge is adapting while building ownership of assets that really have long term value not just Bitcoin and land, maybe gold too. IMO
The emphasis is on individual level, isn't on societal evolvement and adaptability with these innovations but mainly about individuals especially the plebs (like myself) grabbing the scarce and limited opportunities that are left and could be a great determinant of what value in the future would look like in the hands of those who spent their time on assets investment rather than adapting to regain emerging job position for recurrent income.
This where vision and survival collides. When innovations are emerging and changing the landscape there would be those that adapts to survive; and those that are with vision to position their capital in assets that the future would depend upon.