What Is the Ideal World?
Asking tough questions in the face of AI and technological innovation
Imagine waking up in a world where you don’t have to rush to a job you don’t love just to pay the bills. Instead, your day begins with a sense of excitement and purpose, knowing that your basic needs are already met. You have the freedom to spend your time doing things that truly matter to you, creating art, helping others, learning new skills, or just simply sleep.
This might sound like a dream, but it’s a vision of the ideal world that many thinkers have imagined for centuries.
Karl Marx, for example, dreamed of a society where everyone had what they needed and could pursue their true passions. He envisioned a world where the means of production were owned by the people, and wealth was shared fairly. Unfortunately, we all know what happens when these ideas are put into practice. There is an idea-to-reality translation gap. Instead of creating a utopia, dystopias emerged. But that doesn’t mean we should give up on the dream of a better world.
Today, we have a new opportunity to rethink this vision, thanks to rapid advancements in technology, AI, and automation. Imagine robots and AI systems taking care of all the tedious, repetitive tasks. In this world, everyone has access to basic necessities like food, shelter, and healthcare.
There’s no need to stress about financial security because technology handles the mundane tasks, leaving us free to engage in creative and purposeful work. Communities thrive on collaboration and mutual support, rather than competition and scarcity.
This could free us up to focus on meanings and purposes, or simply to enjoy life. AI has the potential to revolutionize industries, increase productivity, and create wealth like never before. But how do we ensure that everyone benefits from these advancements, and not just a select few?
If we continue on our current trajectory of capitalism, we might end up with a single corporation or a very few entities having control over the entire economy of a country, or even the world. Technology thrives on scale — a larger scale produces better technology, which in turn gives the winning company an even greater competitive advantage. This allows them to grow further, create even better technology, and develop more capable AI.
This self-reinforcing, or vicious, cycle, of technological monopoly and dominance could lead to a scenario where the technologically dominant corporation grows ever larger, becoming capable of dominating every industry, sector, and task of human society.
Does this mean we are heading towards a doomsday scenario where we become slaves of a single entity, be it a corporation or the state?
It depends on what we do next. Humanity is at a critical juncture.
If we don’t respond carefully, we could face total societal breakdown, possibly even regressing to the stone age. AI is coming, and it will completely transform society, for better or worse. It is an existential threat comparable to an alien invasion, but it could also be the key to propelling humanity forward to the next stage of civilization. The stakes are high, the opportunity is immense.
To truly reap the benefits of AI, we need a complete redesign of our social structure, economic structure, and political structure. The current systems — whether capitalism, socialism, communism, democracy, or autocracy — are wholly inadequate to respond to this challenge and capitalize on the opportunity. Everything needs to change, and it will change, for better or worse.
This is the first in a series of posts on what this new system could be and how we might achieve it. Hopefully, this is the first step toward ensuring a brighter future.
For now, why don’t you take a moment to think about what an ideal world looks like for you? Leave your thoughts and comments below. Let’s start this important conversation together.
