Lately, I’ve written quite a bit about the coming wave of AI and humanoid robots and the societal transformation it could bring. I consume huge amounts of information about this almost every day in the form of podcasts, books, and articles. I’ve spent time writing about this not only because it’s interesting to me—I feel that governments are doing far too little, if anything at all, to prepare their citizens for the massive technological tsunami that’s now right on our doorstep.
If you look back throughout the course of our recent history, the past eighty years have been relatively easy ones for the vast majority of us. We take so many aspects of our modern life for granted—a reliable power grid, food delivered to our doorsteps or readily available at local grocery stores, and the list goes on. The conveniences of modern life has also made many of us tremendously vulnerable.
Even the AI/Robotics experts can’t agree how technology will change our world and how humans will fare in this next decade. The opinions of those working on the front lines of AI and robotics range from a dark, dystopian future to Elon Musk’s optimistic prediction that this new AI-era will create “High UBI” and “Sustainable abundance for all”. I find myself leaning more on the optimistic side but, the truth is that no one knows how this will all play out now that the AI “genie” is out of the bottle. If you’re a student of history you’ll know that reality doesn’t care about bias and has a way of landing somewhere between the two extremes.
I’m no expert by any means but I’ve spent decades crafting futuristic sci-fi fiction and, if anything, consider myself well-practiced in imagining what these kinds of futures hold. I’ve taken the time to think about what skills that could be the most advantageous to have in the next decade. Here’s what I came up with:
- Cultivate your humanness: This one might seem a bit counterintuitive. Focus on developing skills like creativity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and complex problem-solving that AI and robotics are less likely to fully replicate. This will both increase your odds of employability in an AI-augmented workforce and your ability to carve out an entrepreneurial niche. Also, I do believe human-created art, crafts, and goods will command a premium as design and production of most things become fully automated.
- Build a robust and diversified financial safety net: Most importantly, save aggressively to create an emergency fund covering 6-12 months of expenses, and diversify investments as much as possible. This is not financial advice but, personally, I’ve tried to build the most inflation-resistent portfolio that I can while still having exposure to the industries which are predicted to grow in the next decade (AI-related stocks or index funds, real assets or inflation-resilient holdings like Bitcoin, precious metals, and real estate via REITs) to serve as a buffer against job disruptions while taking advantage of economic future growth.
- Stay informed and adaptable: Don’t be caught off guard. It’s always better to be proactive than reactive. Regularly follow AI and robotics developments through trusted news sources, podcasts, or take courses to anticipate changes and pivot career paths proactively.
- Prioritize your physical health: Develop and maintain a routine of exercise, balanced nutrition, and adequate sleep to build resilience against potentially stressful societal shifts. A healthy body also supports a healthy mind. You’ll be better able to adapt to the many changes we’ll all be living through in this next decade.
- Cultivate mental resilience and peace: I’m a huge proponent of this one. Practice mindfulness, meditation, breathing exercises and/or therapy to manage stress and anxiety from rapid societal and technological changes. Reframe your mindset to always seek out optimism and opportunities instead of just pessimism, fear, and threats. With all change comes great opportunities and many of those opportunities haven’t even materialized yet.
- Build strong relationships and community: Invest time right now in building personal networks, family bonds, clubs, organizations, and real connections in your local community. Human connection will be vital for emotional/spiritual support and personal/professional collaboration in this AI-era we’ve already stepped into.
- Explore ethical and philosophical implications: Take time soon to reflect deeply on the moral questions surrounding AI. Think about things such as job displacement or autonomy, to balance your values and beliefs with technological progress. Most importantly this will provide you with the framework necessary to allow you to advocate for equitable practices and policies as AI becomes more pervasive in our everyday lives.
- Embrace lifelong learning: Success in this next decade will depend on continuous education and the ability to be mentally malleable and pivot quickly. Whether it’s self-guided learning, online schools, workshops, or professional certifications in emerging fields like AI ethics or human-robot interaction. Keep your eyes open, your brain in motion, and be willing to learn new things.
- Nurture spiritual well-being: Adopt practices like journaling, hobbies, spending time in nature, or immerse yourself in spiritual traditions to find true inner purpose and meaning beyond professional/material success. This will help tremendously in realizing self worth isn’t fully reliant upon what you do for a living. AI and robotics make some jobs obsolete and eventually humans may even find they don’t have to work at all for a living. Cultivating your spiritual side will also help you to navigate all of this as well as helping you deal with existential questions raised by advanced AI.
- Plan for a higher level of sustainable living: Hope for the best but plan for the worst. Reduce dependency on vulnerable systems by learning basic self-sufficiency skills —things like gardening, canning, and all manners of repair work. Retrofit your home with as many renewable energy features and backups as possible (solar, generators, battery back ups). There will be an infinitely greater demand on our power grid as AI datacenters come online. Build a library of books about life skills. Long story short, become as resilient as our grandparents or great-grandparents needed to be to survive in their own time. It's better to have these skills and not need them than to need them and be in trouble.
One thing is certain, we're all in this together, and the sooner we prepare the better we'll fare. The potential for a better world is right at our fingertips for the sake of future generations let's do all we can to acheive it.
What Did I Miss? How Do You Think This Next Decade Will Unfold? What Are You Doing To Prepare?
All for now. Thanks so much for reading.
