Comment by tezza
2 days ago
this is truly bizarre.
It’s as if they’ve never heard of Maslow‘s Hierarchy of Needs before and further did they don’t know Self Actualizing is right at the very top.
Without that key stone on the top the human being is still a wanting animal. And if you somehow “mission complete” one Self Actualizing, then you immediately start to want something fresh “purpose” etc.
And obviously Self Actualizing doesn’t have to come in the form of work, although often it does.
At the end of life, Maslow became convinced that self-transcendence was the pinnacle of the hierarchy. Strong identification with work will not get one to that final step. I am not sure if ai is a path to self transcendence or self annihilation, but it's interesting to ponder in the case of some like Brin.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs has been widely criticized as being too rigid and simplistic and too biased towards an affluent Western cultural context. It also hasn't been tested and validated by science, and is based on hearsay rather than empirical data.
"Self Actualization" being a primary universal human need is just one guy's personal opinion, it isn't a law of nature or physics.