> Sounds like your issue isn't with automation, it's with the human condition.
Absolutely 100% not.
There is nothing pessimistic about my understanding of the human condition. I love that humans are this way: that our greatest sense of satisfaction comes not from infinite self-indulgence, but from strenous labor in service of those we care about. What could be more noble than that?
(Of course, I admit that I only perceive it as noble because of thousands of years of evolution where tribes of humans that cooperated were more fit than ones that didn't. But I am a human, and if I have to evaluate my value system using my value system, I'll choose to evaluate it positively.)
My issue is with systems that deliberately or as an unintended emergent property run afoul of human nature. Working well with human nature should be the ultimate goal of any tool or system used by humans. The things we build should help us flourish in all of the ways that our species has evolved to do best in. If a chair is comfortable on your butt, it's a problem with the chair, not the butt.
One of the constants of human nature is the ability to adapt to new environments. It could very well turn out that the 20th-21st century idea of a job is less well suited to human nature than whatever comes after jobs are made obsolete. Even if that's not the case, I think we are smart enough as a species to figure out how to navigate those changes and make them work for us. It sounds like you disagree with this, which is why I think your view is fundamentally pessimistic.
Absolutely 100% not.
There is nothing pessimistic about my understanding of the human condition. I love that humans are this way: that our greatest sense of satisfaction comes not from infinite self-indulgence, but from strenous labor in service of those we care about. What could be more noble than that?
(Of course, I admit that I only perceive it as noble because of thousands of years of evolution where tribes of humans that cooperated were more fit than ones that didn't. But I am a human, and if I have to evaluate my value system using my value system, I'll choose to evaluate it positively.)
My issue is with systems that deliberately or as an unintended emergent property run afoul of human nature. Working well with human nature should be the ultimate goal of any tool or system used by humans. The things we build should help us flourish in all of the ways that our species has evolved to do best in. If a chair is comfortable on your butt, it's a problem with the chair, not the butt.