It feels like a better time than ever to pursue a passion project.
Why?
It’s possible that the world post-20271 is indistinguishable from today, and though the working landscape will be rife with opportunity, it might look dramatically different. That’s not to say that jobs as we know them will cease to exist, but it is to say that those jobs—particularly in the white-collar space—are at a higher level of risk than ever.
How can I be so certain?
I’m not. I wish it were that easy.
The data that can indicate AI is already replacing jobs of new graduates can just as easily demonstrate the decreasing advantage of a college degree. It might just point to unrecovered labor markets from 2020. Maybe all the above.
The CEOs creating these systems say AI will take jobs, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei who said, “AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years.” But we must remember: AI company CEOs have an incentive to overinflate the quality of their creation.
What about non-AI companies? Like the Salesforce CEO who said AI is doing about 30-50% of the work of Salesforce? Or like the Klarna CEO who has been very vocal about laying off employees for AI (which caused backlash due to poor reviews).
That’s the thing about being in a hype-cycle. I saw it with crypto, and we’re living through it with AI; we’re sifting through a fog where both extremes live. On one side: a god-like technology that will take jobs and bring utopia. The other: a radical hate toward a technology that people think will kill us in a myriad of ways, like folding us into tiny paperclips.
As with all hype cycles, what goes up must come down. And with AI, though markets may come down, it does feel like we’re dealing with something profoundly different. If markets and hype come down, labor markets may still face risk. And while it’s a dangerous thing to say, “this time will be different…”
I think this time may be different…
Considering this, what should one do?
On an individual level, a large priority is generating security of finances and meaning in the event AI comes knocking on the boss’s door with a resume in hand. And that’s not a segue into ‘10 easy steps to passive income—become rich tomorrow!’
The way AI reshapes society is non-obvious, which means how we reshape our world is also non-obvious.
The traditional side hustles may not work like they do today; it’s why the new side hustles will be less hustle and more passion born from within (call it what you want: soul, psyche, unconscious, intuition). Hence, passion project.
Today, I attempt to (again x2) illuminate the path forward when navigating through such uncertain, murky terrain. What I discuss today will help whenever we face uncertainty, not just with AI. When we don’t possess the intellect to understand where things are headed, we can tap on a source of intelligence to help guide us.
Intuition & Intellect
There’s a type of thinker that seems to be increasing in prevalence. A thinker who harnesses their intellectual capacity to explore consciousness, dive into an intuitive and spiritual intelligence, and critically investigate topics considered woo woo.
There are many ways I see this referred to, some I’ll miss, but they include:
left brain/right brain integration
mathematical mystic
merging of science and religion
infusing technology with spirit
Noetic Sciences, and
Integral Theory
These thinkers, as far as I’ve seen, treat consciousness as fundamental—meaning, consciousness precedes awareness. It’s not a mere physical process of the human brain, but a core feature of the cosmos.
The implications are vast. If true, consciousness is distributed through the universe. If distributed, an observation of our world shows that the degree to which things are conscious would vary. If consciousness is truly distributed and to different degrees, that which sits at the top of the hierarchy (or that which we get intimations of at the highest level of order) is likely what’s referred to as God.
For those who have trouble receiving these ideas without some sort of claim in the physical world, there may be a route to fundamental consciousness in the physical universe through some quantum-based proposals. I must mention that these proposals do face objections.2
Now, if true, many questions arise. One relevant to this piece: are there beings which possess higher levels of consciousness than humans, and can pass information to us?
The answer to that question is spread through various spiritual schools of thought.
Regardless, it’s no coincidence that this is happening now, at a necessary inflection point. Remembering what makes us uniquely human is surfacing at the frontier of the culture, and it looks more like signal than noise, particularly at a time when integration of human and machine is not only a conversation but also underway.
So, what are these signals, exactly, and what should we make of them?
Walking The Line
It’s not clear to me that we have the proper foresight to predict how AI changes society (though we still try, and I still try). No one knows what will happen. Our rational thinking factor might even be superseded by what it’s trying to assess.
When we need help from a higher capacity, we can go to a source that was always there and still is. It’s that principle which orders consciousness and seems to send signals downstream (upstream?) to the forefront of our understanding. The common term for the place where this ‘lives’ is spirituality.
I think it might be that this source is the only intelligence that can help us explore the uncertainty in a way unique to us as individuals and as a collective.
The ways that source of intelligence is viewed vary.
Some, like Scott Britton, view inspiration and curiosity as one form of this intelligence; it guides toward something that is meaningful and interesting given one’s unique life setup. I find this view useful because these signals point to something emerging from within. It seems to say: here is the quest, conquer the next challenge. From that, things seem to call forth with more clarity, passion, interest, and intensity.
If curiosity, inspiration, and interest are indeed manifestations of these intelligences, passion projects are how we manifest them into the world. It’s through openness, reception, implementation, and embodied action that we manifest this intelligence. They’re not hustles born from a YouTube tutorial, but from unique patterns that propagate through you. One side must be opened to that spirit, and the other side trained to enact what it asks of us.
In my late teens through my early twenties, I was fiercely orderly and rigid. Order. Science. Rationality. Those were the answers, that was the world.
Too one-sided.
But that doesn’t mean that flopping to a complete New-Age mysticism, dropping all rational concerns is the right idea.
The path is wholeness and integration, not one-sidedness.
It’s important to toe that line and not fall too far into either side, lest one become overwhelmed in a state of psychosis or tyrannical rigidity.
So, in short, my answer to the question: How should one prepare for uncertainty and a potential AI takeover?
Enter the Spirit World.
The place which many religious and spiritual practices tap into for wisdom and guidance that makes us uniquely human.
If one is over-reliant on rationality, a development of their spiritual and intuitive side will serve them greatly, allowing them to wield intellect to navigate the spiritual signals. If one is over-reliant on spirituality, it would serve them greatly to develop a stronger rational thinking factor to effectively differentiate signal from noise (the song of the siren).
If there’s one thing we know AI has, it’s a strong intellect, but one that we know it doesn’t have is a human spirit. If you can cultivate the latter, you will never be replaced by AI.
The rational mind doesn’t see a guiding light, but it knows how to navigate the map. The intuitive mind opens the eyes to see the light but has trouble navigating toward it alone. It’s for that reason that those who are too right-hemispheric can be blinded by the light, and those who are too left-hemispheric try to construct their own light (light-bringer → Lucifer3).
It’s for this reason that the integration of both can guide us through a time when the path is unclear.
There’s a major outstanding question, though. What should sit at the bedrock (or the pinnacle) of spiritual pursuit? Yes, it’s there for us to access, but how do we know where our aims should be oriented? That’s something I hope to illuminate over the course of future writing.
Until then,
Take care of yourselves, everyone.
Dom
I chose 2027 because of this research: AI 2027. This is of course a forecast, it has all the flaws that come with it… still compelling, nevertheless.
I should say, I’m not a quantum physicist (unless the many-worlds interpretation is true, then in some universes, I am). I know that Roger Penrose is a credible physicist, and he argues that consciousness may arise through a biophysical process in which within neurons orchestrate quantum states (the Orch-OR theory). Max Tegmark, also credible, argues that it’s reasonably unlikely due to rapid decoherence, the loss of quantum coherence in biological systems. I will place the papers here:
Penrose & Hameroff: Consciousness in the universe: A review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory.
Tegmark: Importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes.
This is a wild thing to drop at the end of a piece, I know; especially if that doesn’t make sense as to why I made that connection. Should there be a suitable level of interest, I can pursue an exploration of the idea of the Luciferian Spirit and why it’s associated with a hyperrational attitude.
Luciferian occultism also known as the Left-Hand Path 🤔