Published: 2026-05-01
I am having random thoughts on how the advances of AI affects our society. One of the most discussed fear is echoed through discussions are knowledge workers losing their jobs.
I am picturing a more concerned another dystopian world.
My assumptions are:
-
There will be a period where AI + robotics is not sufficiently good to replace everything people do. And human+AI still can accomplish more than just AI or just human.
-
There might be artificial barriers, like policies, that enforces a human in the loop. This would be done either because of legacy or by design, to make human irreplacable. Say, requiring a human to show up physically (to stand in a line, to vote, to sign off something). OR requiring a human to be held responsible of a decision (i.e. the meme of "your job is fine if you can go to jail for it"), regardless if that decision was made with aid of AI.
-
Price of tokens will increase proportional to the values they are producing.
If the above assumptions pans out, then one key question is: in the optimal setup of human+AI, does "who is this human" matter at all? In other words, is human the "commodity" in the value-producing act of "working"?.
If we do become commodity, the the balance of power between workforce and capital will get out of control real quick. Like a sandwich shop in a prime NYC location that makes 100k a month, if it's high revenue is because of the location, then the landlord can charge a very high rent, say to 70k, or whatever the next guy is willing to pay to take the shop over.
I'd rather be in a world that nobody have jobs and nobody need to work, than one that we all get minimum-wage jobs, because anyone can do your job. Or one that AI providers can charge me half of my salary, and I am required to pay for my own AI use.
Update on 2025-05-07¶
Chatted with more people, and reflected more on this. Now I realized that the comodization process is always on going with or without AI. From replacing punch cards with assembly, then compiler, then higher-level languages, then low-code drag-and-drop platforms, and now AI. The barrier is getting lower and lower. At the same time, the education floor is also raising, fast. In dynasty times, knowing read and write earns you a living. Now it's expected of anyone graduated from high school. And that is good.
Overtime, power concentrates as Matthew's Law dictates, but we are experienced of fighting such concentration since the industrial revolution. We achieved the 40hr workweek in this process. What is the next achievement? 3-day 21-hr workweek maybe?
Comodization means no human being is above another human being in terms of opportunity and capability to achieve anything, and that is a good thing. I as a software engineer am is fugible as hell, but so is my manager, my director, my VP and the CEO. They can replace me with AI, so I can replace them with AI too.