Folding Beijing
This book is pleasantly short, but it made me think about Yuval Noah Harari’s so-called ‘useless class.’ Harari argues that in the aftermath of the AI revolution, “just as mass industrialization created the working class, the AI revolution will create a new unworking class.” The useless class will be composed of people working jobs that can easily be automated.
In particular, a couple of quotes made me pause:
人工成本往上涨，机器成本往下降，到一定时候就
是机器便宜，生产力一改造，升级了，GDP上去了，失业也上去了。怎么办？政策保护？福利？越保护工厂越不雇人。
I don’t know enough about economics to judge if this statement is true, but I know that this is a problem first-world countries face. The high cost of American labor has led to the importation of overseas labor; now, the millions who have lost their livelihoods and their foothold on the middle class have also lost the sense of hope that accompanies their work. There is something fulfilling about work — knowing that we are useful anchors us and saves us from becoming spiritually adrift.
And this one:
他们埋头斧凿，用累累砖块将自己包围在中间，抬起头来也看不见天空，沙尘遮挡视线，他们不知晓自己建起的是怎样的恢弘。直到建成的日子高楼如活人一般站立而起，他们才像惊呆了一样四处奔逃，仿佛自己生下了一个怪胎。
码农不也这样吗？Who here even knows what we are building, what exactly we are toiling for? The cogs in the machine are parts of the whole, but the whole is invisible to them.
This book made me pause and wonder about my role in the world. As an investor, I’m betting on the acceleration of technology, and automation in particular. I see AI eating into the working class (autonomous driving, check-out, customer service) and middle class (think of all the knowledge tasks that ChatGPT can do). Today, my friend Julian told me about the sense of wonder he felt upon learning about the Bing and ChatGPT integration. And there is always a sense of wonder that accompanies new technology, because it pushes our imagination for what is possible. After reading this book, I’m thinking of Christopher Caldwell’s warning about winners and losers in any economy. There will always be a human cost to change, however positive that change may be.