Conversation

Okay back with More Thoughts™ on abstraction and automation in technology. Once a level sinks deep enough into automation, remaining humans (excluding morlocks who’ve gone sideways-meta as level automation experts), a new problem emerges beyond raw keeping up with machines...
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This is an odd one: loneliness. The number of humans falls below minimum required for there to be a fun community with status, awards, recognition etc. About 500. Enough for a small tech conference. Then it falls below even level for sustainable collective learning, about 12-30.
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Then there is a high-risk period that Hollywood likes to romanticize, as automation isn’t quite ready to take over 100% yet, but the remaining humans are now too dispirited to hold the fort and quit/retire. Technological generation transition.
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Then something breaks, and Young Hotshot who thought Automation Would Solve it All has to go eat humble pie and bring Bruce Willis out of retirement to fix the broken thing. Of course in practice it’s Young Notshots who do it. Like Y2K.
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Finally there’s a revival hipster phase where a new kind of tech community forms around it, with archaeological sensibilities. Like people who do letterpress or vinyl records today. In the future these history minded technologists may be more than marginal hobbyists.