Industrial Revolution II: The Revoluting

"You're a software engineer, why don't you use ChatGPT?" I'm asked, seriously, in a serious tone.

I snort, shoving down complex emotions like fear, existential dread, weltschmerz, and replacing them with amused irritation. My therapist thinks I'm very depressed. "Because it wasn't designed to help me."

The new craze, an almost sentient distributed computer code, that learns from artists, writers, coders, and lawyers alike, to produce a jumbled but coherent result, that's just good enough to fool the masses, along with an outdated standardized Turing test, is sweeping the globe.

Every code interview, every email, every social media post needs to be inspected, under insulting scrutiny, to prevent being suckered into an ill-informed decision. That's the result of humanity's reach exceeding its grasp.

Additionally to that, we've come to realize (hopefully) that there isn't a system that's ever been created that benefits all. And we're letting go of the notion (hopefully) that not fitting into the system that's not designed for your benefit... shouldn't be considered your own damn fault.

We've left artists and writers by the wayside, and focused on professions that don't emphasize our humanity, making them more lucrative. A surgeon cannot and should not have empathy, or they will not risk killing another human being. A lawyer cannot and should not have empathy or they won't be able to work out a mutually beneficial deal. But a writer without empathy is a shitpost generator.

And now us, engineers, who teach machines to handle mistakes because human beings are prone to them, are struggling to find jobs because a less error-prone machine that learns by itself has hit the market.

If that doesn't remind you of the first industrial revolution, maybe you don't get metaphors very well.

So instead of drowning my self-pity in more self-pity, I choose to reconnect with more human aspects of my skillset. I'm a good communicator, a gifted storyteller, a tireless student of the human condition, all of which aren't ChatGPT's forte. And until someone finally utters the word "union", I won't consider ChatGPT entirely helpful. It was made to replace me, because it's cheaper than me, ... so good luck with that.

And as long as you don't present me with human attributes like trust, empathy, and respect, I'm going to assume you are that machine. If you are still hiding what makes you truly authentically you, from people who view you with the same scrutiny, ... how do you expect to survive this new age?