Comment by StanislavPetrov
4 days ago
>Is that not the epitome of the classic mid life crisis?
The classic epitome of the mid life crisis has always been something along the lines of, "I spent my whole life working and doing a job that I didn't like, sacrificing my youth and my precious time with my friends and family, and all I'm left with is money. My mortality is coming into view, my best years are behind me, and as I sit here in my big house with my fancy car, I realize I wasted all that time all chasing dollars."
That's a lot different than, "I spent my whole life working and doing a job that I didn't like, sacrificing my youth and my precious time with my friends and family, and I'm left with nothing at all. I have no prospect for retirement, will likely become homeless and destitute when I am unable to continue working and/or am laid off, and their is no future."
In my case it was more like
"I spent my whole life working and doing a job that I really loved, sacrificing my youth and my precious time with my friends and family, and I'm still left with nothing at all"
I still got burned out. Loving the career didn't change much.
Now the machines do what I loved to do. I had nothing, but at least I had pride and there was social recognition.
All vanities. Life lesson there.
I don't know what I was chasing, some sort of poetic output. I looked a famous people in this career, I just wanted to leave my name there.
But now I don't, I hate AI and I think its a bad path for humanity. I guess I can still leave my name elsewhere, maybe I start the Butlerian Jihad somehow.
I imagine myself being the one bureaucrat in the Jihad that banned the use of CPUs with more power than a 80486. That makes me happy and create a motive to still live.
I can't create anymore, but I can destroy !
[dead]
I think this is a perfect description. The feelings continue across generations with no answer. Meanwhile society continues to shift underneath mens' feet. And still tries to claim it is a personal problem. The browbeating/apathy continues.