The article discusses the current anxiety around layoffs and job security in the context of AI's rise. It questions whether fear stems from AI itself or from the transient nature of job certainties. It posits that as AI alters workplaces, we may abandon the traditional 9-to-5 workday for more flexible, goal-oriented patterns. The author argues that the rigid distinction of work and personal time is a recent concept, and throughout most of history, work was organized around immediate needs, similar to how hunter-gatherers operated. This transition may signify a return to a more humane approach to labor.
AI may ironically free us from the very system we fear losing. The conventional 9-to-5 workday represents a surprisingly brief experiment in human labor history.
The strict delineation of work time versus personal time would have seemed peculiar to our ancestors until the 18th century. Hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age worked just three to five hours daily.
The job market is brutal, and we must adjust to a new reality where AI could steal jobs, challenging our economic prospects and certainties.
Past disruptive technologies like landline phones and Facebook became part of life but eventually faded from prominence, similar to what we may expect with current work structures.
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