Artificial Intelligence is already starting to “invade” all aspects of our life from military and businesses to functions as simple as acting as a receptionist and communicating in a human-like form. Eventually, we are bound to reach a point where all jobs would become obsolete as AI’s capabilities overtake ours and our roles in society are lost. What impact could this have on our mental health and well-being? Is AI truly a benefit in such a scenario or are we subjecting ourselves to worthlessness and existential crises?
Humans are hedonistic in nature, we are attracted to everything which gives us pleasure and we often give in to these desires more often than not. Among the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we enjoy life for the little things most of the time. A compliment, a good conversation, a hug, a new friendship are all things we enjoy about living and provide us with a sense of fulfillment and gratefulness. We enjoy the little things because we realise how difficult and stressful work life and complex relationships can get. That’s what we tend to consider as the beauty of life. Question is, if we lose the complex nature of our everyday lives without a purpose, do we lose the value of the good too? Initially, once we have the freedom, we are likely to exploit all the experiences we have saved up on our bucket list and conform to all our desires. Are our desires exhaustible and are we likely to reach a point of eternal boredom or are we truly likely to live a fulfilled, easier and joyful life with AI in control?
After a point, with no sense of fulfillment or achievement and over-gratification of desires, we may reach a point where we are immune to the little things which keep us motivated to wake up every morning. We may have to turn to a point where superficial or materialistic hedonism is our only source of happiness and gratefulness (which is an essential component of a positive attitude) is lost.
An Idle mind is a devil’s workshop. Once we exhaust all our sources of desires and have lost purpose, where do we go next? A spiralling sense of worthlessness is likely. The irony would be that we would have to resort to an AI in therapy to resolve these issues. The impact on mental health could be a crippling sense of depression with the loss of worth and purpose as we humans do not fulfill our needs. As evident by Maslow’s hierarchy, we are required to attain certain needs to feel motivated and progress. If AI has taken up most jobs, we are likely to be stuck at esteem needs and live a life without energy and motivation.
by Daryanani Riddhi Navin
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