Learning for life

Artificial intelligence confronts us with the question of which skills we should develop in order to have something to do in the future.

Administrative officers, bank clerks, accountants - many typical desk jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) in the near future. In the future, humans will no longer be needed to carry out repetitive, monotonous tasks. This raises the question of what jobs we will be doing in the future if we don't want to be dependent on state benefits to keep us alive. Which of our skills will be in demand? What do we need to learn today if we don't want to be discarded as obsolete models?

by Kerstin Chavent

[This article posted on 1/19/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.manova.news/artikel/furs-leben-lernen.]

We are already feeling it today: artificial intelligence is causing a significant change in the job market. In the very near future, many jobs will be carried out by machines rather than people. Billions will be affected by this development. An estimated 14 million job profiles will soon no longer exist as they do today.

Desk jobs such as accountants, tax advisors, auditors, court clerks, draughtsmen, commercial and industrial designers, IT engineers, data entry clerks, legal assistants and biological and technical specialists will be among the losers of the AI revolution. This development also affects my work. Chatbots are already writing essays and articles in a matter of seconds and confronting me with the question: Will I still be needed in the future?

The genie is out of the bottle

The winners of the digital revolution include hairdressers, plumbers, care and service workers and professions that have something to do with creativity and responsibility (1). It's starting to work in my head. If that is the case, then it is fair to ask whether we still need compulsory education. Why should we all be forced to go to school for at least ten years and learn things that we don't need in our lives? What is the point of preparing people for jobs that are done by machines?

What justifies the use of learning barracks in which everyone is trimmed down to a certain level if all that awaits them at the end is a citizen's income anyway? Why do we have to remain motionless in concrete castles when manual professions in particular have a future where physical skills are needed?

Why the incoherent learning units, the constant comparing and pitting against each other, the exams, the grading, the stress, when creativity, a sense of responsibility and cooperation are needed (2)?

The development of technology is unstoppable. We waste our energy if we oppose it. What we fight against, we ultimately make great. Our opportunities open up when we go with things, not against them. So what do we need to learn today if we want to find employment tomorrow? What do we have to do when the mindless jobs, the monotonous tasks and repetitive processes are no longer there?

We are creative beings

What can humans do that machines cannot? How can we ensure that artificial intelligence does not replace natural intelligence? How can we use technology for what it is: a tool? We have it in our hands. Without someone to use it, the tool is useless. Artificial intelligence has no life of its own. It depends on the programmer. The machine is dead if someone pulls the plug.

Humans, on the other hand, are not dependent on being programmed by someone. They draw their life energy from other sources. As auto-poietic beings, we are able to create and maintain ourselves again and again. Machines are objects. Humans are subjects, conscious, thinking, recognizing and acting beings, creators and creatures at the same time.

In contrast to machines, we have the opportunity to become inventive and shape the world from within ourselves. We are not helplessly exposed to the programmers, the "powerful", the "elites", the "rulers". If we decide to do so, we are not the victims of our history, but its heroes. It does not have to continue as told in Genesis. The artificial human being, who did not spring from the womb of a woman but from the rib of a man, does not have to gain the upper hand.

Real and true

We have something powerful to counter the increasing development of the artificial: Feelings. Friendship. Love. Warmth of heart. A sense of community. Joy. Gratitude. Dignity. Ingenuity. Soul. Our humanity. The machine can only do what it is told. Humans can do more. Even if they no longer play chess better and process information more slowly.

People cannot be calculated. They can be exposed to the worst - betrayal, isolation, torture, death sentence - but nothing can force them to give in.

Many of the resistance fighters in the Third Reich went to their deaths with a straight back. They did not betray their values and remained genuine and truthful. In the face of a deeply misanthropic and destructive machine, they proved their human and spiritual superiority (3).

They have shown us what people were capable of and can still be capable of today: following their own conscience and standing up not only for their own lives, but also for values that transcend personal existence. It is this authenticity that makes us creators. We are not condemned to follow A with B. We have the entire alphabet at our disposal, which we can use to write a new story that no one expected.

Hand in hand

According to publicist Milosz Matuschek, in order to use the full range of what is available to us, we must first remove the sediments of past and present indoctrinations that have been deposited before our inner eye, piece by piece (4). Let us free ourselves from the mental poison and compulsive conformity of past times. Let us no longer lose ourselves in details, but open our senses to grasp the whole. Let us no longer allow ourselves to be patronized. Let's free ourselves from shame and a sense of lack. Let's overcome the division that has been imposed on us and find a new way of working together.

This is where artificial intelligence can be useful. Thanks to it, language barriers can be overcome and people all over the world can network with each other. Together, we are beginning to learn what we need now: Peace. There is so much to do for those who have chosen to be human!

How do we manage to approach each other again, communicate with each other and listen to each other? How can we make joint decisions in which no one is ignored? How does real democracy work? How can we succeed in discovering our very own and very special talents and abilities and making them available to the community? How can conflicts be resolved? How do we develop trust in each other again?

It never gets boring

The learning required for this has little to do with the old school. Now it is about developing real sustainability and releasing energies that are not based on exploitation, slavery and child labor, energies for which no forests are cut down, no waste dumps are created and no nature is destroyed. Let us learn to draw from the full without emptying the vessel. Let's liberate ourselves from the scarcity mindset, from the poison that has paralyzed and imprisoned humanity for thousands of years

What we need to learn now is more exciting and challenging than any fight, any battle, any war: it is about turning from a chicken into an eagle and, in a way, learning to fly.

Those who take on the new tasks will certainly not be bored. They don't have to get into a virtual mood to endure life between Monday and Monday and wait for their vacation. He is busy doing what fulfills him and gives his life meaning.

So it's going to be adventurous!

I wonder if a chatbot would write it like that?



Sources and notes:

(1) https://www.businessinsider.de/wirtschaft/kuenstliche-intelligenz-diese-jobs-wird-es-in-zukunft-nicht-mehr-geben/

(2) Hauke Arach: Man, learn this and don't ask. How our children are being prepared for the future, Anderwelt Verlag 2023

(3) https://www.manova.news/artikel/die-letzte-prufung

(4) https://www.freischwebende-intelligenz.org/p/auf-welche-welt-steuern-wir-zu

Kerstin Chavent lives in the south of France. She writes articles, essays and autobiographical stories. Her books published in German include Die Enthüllung, In guter Gesellschaft, Die Waffen niederlegen, Das Licht fließt dahin, wo es dunkel ist, Krankheit heilt and Was wachsen will muss Schalen abwerfen. Her focus is on dealing with crisis situations and illness and sensitizing people to their creative potential. Her blog "Conscious: Being in change".

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