Tech Can Destroy You… or Reward You…

Be Lightyears Ahead of the Masses When Tech Takes Over

In the end, we’re all just pets.

That assessment might be a bit facetious—though, then again, maybe not.

All I can say with any certainty is that the machines are rising up, and they don’t care about human feelings. Ultimately, they don’t have a need for us.

Already, they’ve started usurping jobs. More jobs are being handed over to robots and their artificial intelligence overlords. Fewer jobs are on the horizon for workers who bleed red rather than the color of whatever machine fluid lubricates a robot’s joints and appendages.

Some big thinkers see the bright side in all of this and seem to downplay or disregard the dark side.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently told comedian Trevor Noah that, in terms of artificial intelligence, “If you get a society with three days of work a week eventually, then probably that’s okay.”

Yes, it probably is.

I mean, I work as a digital nomad and, frankly, my life feels like it’s a never-ending three-day workweek because of the freedom and latitude I have. (And just so my editors are clear: I work eight days a week, but I love what I do so much that my week feels like three days… just to be clear.)

But is a three-day work week really the empowering thought it seems to be at first?

I’m not sure how I want to answer that question.

Because there is collateral damage to assess and worry about.

I love the idea of a three-day work week that frees up leisure time to pursue other income opportunities doing something you love, or to just learn a new hobby—like, I’ve always wanted to play the guitar or the saxophone, but who has time for that when you’re working eight days a week?

Yet, for most of Western society, a three-day work week would very likely be a disaster, at least early on.

A reduction in time worked almost assuredly leads to a reduction in paycheck earned.

And I’m not sure if you’ve paid attention or not, but America and most of the Western world is off-its-rocker expensive. How does a three-day workweek jibe with the real cost of living? If days worked fall by 40%, do our daily costs fall by 40%?  

Here’s the problem with that: When big thinkers think about a three-day work week, they’re thinking about white-collar jobs. They’re not thinking about the service-industry and blue-collar jobs that employ most Americans.

If McDonald’s runs an automated burger-making machine (yes, those already exist) it’s not like the House of Ronald only turns on those machines from Thursday through Sunday so that three-day-a-week workers have a four-day weekend. That makes zero sense.

If a robot/AI is so efficient and cost-effective that it makes sense to run the machine four days a week, then it makes even more sense to run the machine every day of the week. Why bother with workers who demand healthcare and forget to show up and demand vacation days?

Same in the world of construction, where robotic technology is pouring perfectly shaped cement forms far better than a human.

We are moving into a world where there may be a three-day work week for certain people. But many more people are looking at a zero-day work week in the not-too-distant future. And we all know idle hands are the weapons of revolt and social unrest.

Of course, the haters want to hate the machines. The reality, of course, is that we—society/humanity—are to blame. We’re like that Russian submarine captain in The Hunt for Red October, who, enamored with his own superiority, yet blind to his own arrogance, fires the torpedo that destroys his own sub.

That’s modern humanity.

We’re enamored by our own technological superiority, yet blind to our own arrogance—our belief that we can contain the technology we’ve unleashed.

Not likely.

Humans are, sadly, a liability in the corporate world. We like to (desperately want to) think we’re an asset. Alas, to employers we are a cost-center, a managerial headache, and at risk of going postal or sparking a lawsuit.

A drunken robot isn’t going to inappropriately kiss the receptionist at the company Christmas shindig. AI isn’t going to call in sick with the flu and demand a raise when the price of bread shoots the moon.

Question is: How does one prepare for that—especially us Gen Xers and Boomers—given the speed at which the machines are taking over?

Me? I’m diving ever deeper into crypto, and I don’t mean in investment terms. I mean I’m looking for ever more ways to understand the opportunities that crypto represents. In some cases, that’s income from non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the digital-art-based crypto I regularly tell you about. In other cases, it’s understanding the ways that crypto-based gaming is creating income potential from game play.

I’m an old dog, and technology doesn’t care. It’s blind to that. It’s blind to age, race, education, geography, social standing. All it cares about is that you know what you’re doing, and if you do, it rewards you.

If you’ve been reading these dispatches in recent weeks, you’ll know about my interest in the crypto-based horse-racing game Photo Finish Live (and this is not another update, so don’t worry). You’ll also know that in less than two months, I’ve made several thousand dollars playing that game, and my stash is growing by the day.

That’s really the point I’m underscoring here: Technology will taketh away—and already is. But technology also giveth.

Those who learn the opportunities tech is giveth-ing are the ones who will be best prepared for the radical transformation now underway.

As Dire Straits once sang: Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.

So if your aim is to not be the bug, then soak up all the crypto knowledge you can now. You’ll be lightyears ahead of the mainstream masses when they’re scrambling to save themselves soon enough.