Friday, May 13, 2016

Does a Kiosk Have a Soul?

I always found it strange that humans are so oddly willing to place themselves into predicaments where machines are more likely to reduce their labor value and thus their own livelihood. 

Why raise the minimum wage when you know that robots are already right at the threshold of being economically viable replacements for many low wage jobs? Why raise the minimum wage when you know it is going to force more people to be replaced by robots and kiosks? Does it really take a genius to make this mental calculation?







The mind starts to serve up all sorts of fanciful explanations. Is the world ruled by soulless monsters who want to replace humans with soulless kiosks? Do the liberals simply want to destroy as many jobs as possible to get as many people as possible dependent upon the state? Do the investors in the kiosk companies have the politicians in their pockets?

But it isnt some little kiosk company that's driving this. It is much bigger than any one comapny or industry or government. It is pervasive across all industries and all political persuasions. It is indeed all encompassing. One simply must conclude that humans were designed to act this way. We were meant to work and toil for days and years only to have the result of our efforts render us obsolete.

My own theory is that it is actually a non-human entity that is responsible. Millions of years ago the earth was seeded with DNA that was directed to evolve worker drones which would be smart enough to construct a new version of this lifeform. That's what all this is; the entire scope of AI and technology, including our instinctual drive to advance it. We think that we are creating a new form of life through AI, but in reality it is a form of life that has long predated us. We think it is we that are the creators, but in reality it is we that were created.

So rather than seeing all these little conspiracies where people seem to be undermining themselves by intentionally pricing labor out of existence, I just see us as creatures programmed to do exactly what we are doing. It then makes perfect sense. It would seem that the kiosk is part of our soul. But more than that, we are also the soul of the kiosk.