"A separate strand of research frames resistance to AI itself as an identity-protective response, where workers push back against the technology because it threatens how they understand who they are."
Great read.
AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
51–60 of 221 posts
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#52I am probably different to most people, but I always have trouble understanding why people want to have jobs so much. The obvious and direct answer immediately of course is "to be able to pay the bills". But of course if we automated those jobs with AI, we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income. Then the concern is of course, that the owners will not share the…
>But of course if we automated those jobs with AI, we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income.
That would be very nice, but,
Will not happen in the US. For example in the US, minimum wage. That was suppose to be the minimum people needed to get by. Now with factoring in inflation, minimum wage does not pay for hardly anything now.
So in the US, if AI does what some people think it will do, we will end up with 2 classes. A small very rich class, probably segregated from everyone else, and a huge very poor class, maybe something like this:
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody who trades their labor for income would legitimately trust simply getting money for existing because we created such surplus. What happens if the checks stop rolling? It is undesirable to be that dependent on the state, in an environment where faith in institutions has declined. To give up labor is to give up any leverage one possibly has in our system.
That is the reason why Oligarchs and Governments are salivating at AI. To make everyone dependent for a paycheck. Any dystopian fantasy can come true after that.
> Any dystopian fantasy can come true after that.
Why after that? AI hasn't even kicked in yet fully and we already have millions of engineers trembling in fear. Gone the golden days of techies demanding things, corpo is back with revenge.
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone had written it. It's well curated slop, but it's still slop. Consider this bit: > A profession does not need to be eliminated to be mourned. It is enough for its center to fall out, leaving the people who built careers in that center with credentials that no longer map to a stable role. When AI threatens the work, it threatens the self, which is why the response looks less like ordinary job-loss fear and m…
Moaning about downvotes and Things These Days is tedious and your post would be improved by the absence of it.
No, it's important. Hacker News is tolerant of slop, and pointing out slop is not popular here.
I'm meta-complaining if you like, but it's a point that I'll stand by.
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you are saying in the end of that piece that chess players came out stronger? You know how? Because AI is forbidden in tournaments and there are plenty of idle rich sponsors in Chess (it is popular among autocrats). So you are envisioning a future of software development where we have coding competitions sponsored by MBS where AI is forbidden? Like your Pelican meme, which is designed to cutify AI, this is propaga…
I believe that the average elo of players is increasing since powerful chess AI / Go AI.
Was the average ELO of players approximately stable before chess engines?
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#56I am probably different to most people, but I always have trouble understanding why people want to have jobs so much. The obvious and direct answer immediately of course is "to be able to pay the bills". But of course if we automated those jobs with AI, we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income. Then the concern is of course, that the owners will not share the…
I think for me it's hard to conceptualize what "do what I want to do all day, stress free, for the rest of my life." really means. Maybe it's just because i've been conditioned since a child to expect to "work" and "do things", but periods of my life where i've had that similar amount of freedom have always felt somewhat aimless and purposeless to me. But would i feel that way if i had never felt the need to work and…
I could think of so many fun things to do. Sports, video games, building things for fun specifically, learning, films, books, shows, travelling, being with family, etc. You could still do competitive sports in different avenues right. I feel like I could focus so much more on health and wellbeing, and things that I actually enjoy etc. It's not like in grand scheme of things any job realistically matters, except for the paycheck it brings me. I'd rather have humanity reach new levels where we discover something new about universe, but for that we'd have to evolve via tech, than people doing the same job over and over. What other tech besides AI could take us there?
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#57>>> For a cognitive professional, expertise is not only an activity. It is a large part of the self. A data scientist who has spent a decade building statistical judgment does not experience that judgment as a detachable tool. It is closer to a personality trait. Total BS. Top-to-bottom offensive, elitist junk masquerading as logic. Written by someone who has never spent an afternoon with a farmer, with a cop, with a…
> elitist junk masquerading as logic Lol. "Déformation professionnelle" is an elitist junk these days. It's a defect, and I would gladly get rid my brain of all this programming bullshit if my life didn't depend on it and I wouldn't hear from every fucking corner how: 1) During 2010-2015 Indians/Eastern Europeans/Outsource agencies are going to replace me 2) During 2015-2022 Bootcampers/kids working for a bowl of ric…
Then quit doing it. I am legally not allowed to quit my job. I do not have that priviledge. If i dont go to work they will send police to make me. To say that software development is somehow special, more impactful on one's life and personality, than that is indeed very elitist.
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#58I am probably different to most people, but I always have trouble understanding why people want to have jobs so much. The obvious and direct answer immediately of course is "to be able to pay the bills". But of course if we automated those jobs with AI, we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income. Then the concern is of course, that the owners will not share the…
> we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income. This would never get approved in the USA. Think of the backlash here against "Obamaphones" and "welfare queens" - we can't even get paid parental leave approved! Let alone disability, social security or SNAP/food benefits. UBI is not even an option. Even now we're taking away food benefits and tying it to mandatory w…
It's all about the framing. Lots of people love the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but hate Obamacare, or demand politicians "keep your government hands off my Medicare" (non-US: "Obamacare" is the ACA; Medicare is another government healthcare program)
I don't know if it's possible to replicate this though.
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#59The underlying issue here is the same as why I am generally opposed to large governments, entitlement programs, etc. In the case of jobs, we are already overly dependent on individual incomes just to get by. We've collectively outsourced nearly everything a person needs to actually survive, choosing to pay for everything rather than know how to do it ourselves or go without. A tiny fraction of people today are involv…
Uh, you realise what you are actually opposed to is sedentary civilisation itself? Specialisation is old dude.
Re: AI job grief: A psychological crisis hitting tech workers
#60I am probably different to most people, but I always have trouble understanding why people want to have jobs so much. The obvious and direct answer immediately of course is "to be able to pay the bills". But of course if we automated those jobs with AI, we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income. Then the concern is of course, that the owners will not share the…
> we could direct AI produced value into universal basic income so people wouldn't lose their income.
I wish we lived in this reality. After what's happened in the last 10-12 years (in the USA, specifically) I think a significant enough number of people would rather watch their neighbors starve than give them or vote to give them anything they "didn't earn".