Meandering Thoughts on Cheeseburger Wrappers
Sometimes when you string different thoughts and conversations together, you spot irony in the world and how we as people are pretty ridiculous. As you’re reading this, it’s okay to laugh, as I have been laughing about this for two weeks and am now putting it into a piece of writing. At the same time, there’s a lesson here, and I’ll point it out in the context of cheeseburger wrappers.
It started with a chat conversation with some of my best friends in Oregon. (Love these guys because we can have deep discussions and challenge each other and learn from each others’ thinking.) We were discussing AI and the socioeconomic impacts of artificial intelligence. The point that was being made was that AI is accelerating the pace of automation, which in turn is reducing the amount of work available for people. Simply put, the robots are taking our jobs. I disagree, but that’s beside the point. Though note the argument: AI will reduce work available for people, reducing options to earn income, while productivity benefits will be reaped by owners. Hmmm, okay.
Later, one of my friends points out that there’s an organization that’s building machine vision technology (AI) to spot trash. This technology can be used by drones to pick up litter, which would clean up our streets and nature. Okay, this is awesome, nothing wrong with this, and we should take advantage of this technology because humans kind of suck at picking up after themselves. People are selfish and irresponsible.
And then the dots connected in my brain.
Wait a minute. Weren’t we just talking about how the robots are going to take our jobs? Then why the fuck are we building robots to pick up trash? I’m not saying it’s a job for someone, but it could be. The more important, age-old question, why aren’t we throwing our trash away properly? Where’s the individual responsibility? Think about it, who created that cheeseburger wrapper that we’re now building robots to pick up?
Here’s how I think about it: I bought a cheeseburger. I ate the cheeseburger. The result is a cheeseburger wrapper that is now waste; it no longer serves a purpose for me. I am the sole cause of this cheeseburger wrapper, so it is my responsibility to take care of it and dispose of it properly.
We’re complaining that AI is going to wreak socioeconomic havoc on the world while individuals can’t maintain enough responsibility to do something as simple as properly dispose of their thirty-two-ounce soda cups. So instead, we’re building robots to do it, the same robots that will take all our jobs and run the world. So, we shouldn’t build these smart robots because they’re dangerous and we’ll become their slaves. But then who’s going to pick up our sporks and empty Taco Bell sauce packets? What a clusterfuck. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Or are we? Maybe it’s more simple.
As Jordan Peterson says, “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.”
In other words, clean up your room, throw away your trash, before you get wrapped up in the problems of the world.
Imagine, if each one of us did that, then we wouldn’t need to build litter robots. Individual responsibility, accumulated in aggregate, would change the world. So, look at yourself and what you can do better. Put your energy in your responsibility to the world, rather than expend energy getting engrossed in the problems of the world, which are often caused by individual irresponsibility, accumulated in aggregate.
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