What will people do?

I was recently at my friend’s fortieth birthday party, for which he invited over a hundred people. During a short speech, the host said that no one was there by chance. You can interpret this statement in different ways, but I immediately thought that each of them was part of the story of his life. Positively, of course, because what would be the point of inviting enemies or people who were toxic, indifferent, or unimportant.

I thought that my life had taken a completely different path, and I wouldn’t have anyone to invite to my birthday, even though I am much older and have lived my life in a very interesting way. I used to be able to gather people around me, but it was more because my personality was a kind of tourist attraction, not because of my friendly appearance or demeanor.

Since I am a fundamentally unsociable person, although very friendly to people, I wandered among the guests in an unstructured rhythm until I finally spotted a free sofa, to take a moment to relax on it and observe the guests engaged in lively conversation from that perspective. The atmosphere was incredibly energetic and friendly, which perfectly reflected the cheerful and very open nature of the birthday boy.

Unexpectedly, a young man with wide, designer-torn jeans sat down next to me, and I thought he was a person from Generation Z, but I quickly re-evaluated my first impression, not only because of his young age, but also because of his views, which did not at all correspond with what I know about this generation.

Against my better judgment and to my surprise, I struck up a conversation with him, and somehow it flowed. The young man was a recent high school graduate and was temporarily working as a car mechanic because, as he put it, he doesn’t like to be dependent, and you have to be independent in life. This sentence completely buried my thesis about the aforementioned Generation Z.

Our conversation turned to robotics and the digitalization of life. He stated that he could imagine robot-doctors more than robot-mechanics, because in a car you always have to hit something somewhere, either because something is rusted or something is hooked. I thought there was something to that, although I had recently been subjected to the Epley maneuver, which involves the gravitational disposal of otoliths in human heads. So, we, like cars, are from time to time governed by the simple laws of physics.

The conversation was getting more and more interesting. I stated that someday, maybe still in my lifetime, robots would build houses and apartments, produce furniture, equip homes, and basically take over all production from humans. “So what will people do then?” he asked.

“What they have always done,” I replied. “Some will want to be noble, others will be cruel and ruthless. Some will be empathetic, others sociopathic. We will continue to ask why the largest country in the world wants to be even bigger and believes it has the right to kill its own sons. It is likely that professions that, like the car mechanic or cashier, appeared just 200 years ago, will disappear, which isn’t so long ago, given the history of humanity.”

The Human Place in the World

We were both interested in the question of who would own the robots. It seems that in democratic countries, citizens will be able to decide on this matter, having the tools to vote and entrust key decisions to governments and parliaments. Although, given recent events in politics, it is possible that someone may say that all robots should be owned by the USA.

Nevertheless, there will always be people who are more or less hardworking, more or less resourceful, and no matter what can be done in this world, people will be able to find their place, or spend their whole lives looking for that place.

Regardless of what these people will do, they will be completely different people. When we look at archival photos of Europeans from the 19th or early 20th century, we see completely different people, doing completely different things, and thinking in a completely different way.

We can, however, imagine their feelings and emotions, and it seems that little has changed in that respect. But has anything changed in us since a person looked at a newborn baby? There will always be something that we will have to or want to do.

Finally, we landed. I thought about how many important thoughts can be a witness in a simple plane landing. I’m now going to a meeting with Yerka, Fogtt, Dwurnik, Setowski, Olbiński, and a few Frenchmen from Provence whom I invited to the walls next to Viktualienmarkt.

Read the original article: Czym będą zajmować się ludzie