On the Intelligent and Social Age

A brief discussion about what the world and society will look like as we're headed into the intelligent and social age.

Regardless of how you feel about it, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making its rounds quickly. Due to the tough and competitive job market, many people are looking at other means of living to cash in on their endeavors. Seeing this come together, many citizens aren't aware nor informed about this change gradually taking place. As the fourth industrial revolution is slowly waning away, or it may prolong a little more depending on the people's awareness, perhaps I'll chime in my take on what these new, upcoming era is—the Intelligent and the Social Age—what it'll be about, both being a "consequence" of these rapid technologies running and powering our lives. Nothing to be afraid of, but those who are prepared will be fine while those unaware will struggle to adjust.

The Intelligent Age: Available at your local planet

The Intelligent Age will be an era where AI and/or intelligent machines run the show; They're the ones executing the laborious work that us humans either find tedious, repetitive or dangerous. Whether these intelligent machines have to pay taxes for such labor is another topic, but nevertheless, these robotics are the ones serving, working and attending to everyday citizens. As for the entertainment side, AI-generated content will make rounds in making shows and films produced. While the graphical art it produces still spew out some imperfections, this will improve, making it more difficult to distinguish art made by humans. Whether the content it creates is good enough to entertain remains to be seen as things are still in beta, but it sure is getting better and better. Seeing enough AI-generated stuff, I'm slowly having a hard time seeking legitimacy of the content I see including the comments posted about it. These machines will shock and stun, it's only a matter of time.

Life in the Intelligent Age will feature human labor as optional. However, we can't argue that humans are required to manage and maintain these machines. In addition, citizens consuming machine-made content or reverting to machine-laden services means the populace has adapted to their work. That doesn't mean Life would be a complete bore, but citizens will have to find other means of living. Being that YouTube is my place to hang out currently, the popular platform has recommended me underrated channels that may interest me (most of the time, it does). With regards to these channels, who have 100 subscribers or less, seeing these small channels tell me one thing: Many are resorting to places like YouTube to build a community of their own. With enough subscribers, these creators can earn a good-enough income for their work despite it not being guaranteed. Nevertheless, it's platforms like this turning into side gigs or potentially a full-time job. With new YouTube channels popping up more and more, featuring brand new people taking a shot at making content, it's like starting your own platform and/or business is the way to go. Those who are artists will find this to be a treat; They are their own bosses and can plan their own project(s) accordingly to how they want. In contrast to constant consuming, not witholding consumerism's involvement with spending, it seems that many more creators will be needed to cater this demand. If you've always wanted to start your own business, sell things or create a small community of some sort, now is the time to do it.

To those who don't create, are heavily reliant on the system, that is the labor market, will fall behind very quickly. They're going to resort in collaborating with these creators, start-ups or any entrepreneur to make ends meet. Assuming that many people may not have much a stake with AI-generated content, citizens will want to favor and support fellow humans who sell, create, produce, teach and more. Often times, some of these creators will need an extra hand or two and will want to hire workers of their own, but that itself presents a future challenge since many of them don't intend to hire anyway. In summary, the Intelligent Age will stun among those unable to create or find any collaboration of some sort and will have to find another means of making money. How so? If creating and starting their own ventures isn't an option, they'll have to re-learn brand new skills needed for the Intelligent Age, which for most of them means going back to school. If they waste their time consuming, like binge-watching movies, relative to not finding a direction/goal in Life, they're very much in trouble the moment this Age officially arrives. They will go crazy, yes, but that, too, will be their own demise once we see this Age coincide with this next one I'll chime in on:

The Social Age: Being nice is the key to survival

While I never had plans to but enjoyed learning the process of it, real estate investing was something unique to me—something my late, great father was curious studying about some time in his life. I would watch these real estate tutorial videos seeing the process of it, learning new terms, getting started, along with some great testimonials and stories from those who are investing full-time. I mention this because it's a business that's all about people; It's about treating them the way you want to be treated, keeping your promises and your word(s), and being level-headed when deals don't work out. One thing I learned being in that business is if you're rude, lie, snap, or backstab, you won't be in that business for long.

The real estate investment business will represent part of what will happen in the Social Age: With the US dollar plunging, this will signal finding another currency for exchange. I'm not sure how many people feel about cryptocurrency as it'll save our country or global markets from crashing, but it looks like digitizing money is the intended plan. Because of that, for those who aren't fond of digital currencey means citizens will resort to the barter system—exchanging services and goods to acquire something in return, in other words, trading. This means that people who steal, have meltdowns, have known to be rude toward workers, employees or customers in public may never have a spot in society again. Living under such age would mean quickly ignoring and refusing those who are outright rude. There are plenty of videos featuring individuals who are rude to workers, to police officers and to other citizens in general floating around the internet, and it is these people who will find it close to impossible to be welcomed in to society under this Social Age.

Source and credits to: In No Particular Order - "Craziest Customers Caught On Camera Causing Chaos! Intense Customer vs. Employee Battles" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwol29n6kSo

Customer angry at a Staples over pencils. Meltdowns like this won't be tolerated in the Social Age (thank goodness).

In a deeper sense, people who are deeply insecure, mainly those who are "insufferable," always get offended by everything that others do or say, are going to be the first ones affected. (Funny, the customer featured on the image above yells at an employee's friend saying "look in the mirror and reflect on yourself," when he, himself, needs to do the same—melting down over pencils.) The phrase "misery loves company" couldn't be any more prevalent, and due to that, others won't cater nor have the time to fix such discontentment when survival is on everyone's minds. Because of such behavior(s), ensuring that others are as miserable and insecure as they are, it won't be long until society either disciplines them or excludes them completely. It's almost as if being miserable will be that person's own demise (a reminder that suicide is not an answer). Another reason insecure people will struggle fitting in during the Social Age is their poor sense of communication—the key to everything. There's nothing worse than someone telling you something then they get mad at you for not understanding, despite what they said was unclear. It's all about being honest and keeping your word, so at this point in time, if that's still a struggle, they will see transactional opportunities greatly reduced.

While in the subject of insecure people, it seems that video content specializing in social commentary, that is deducing other people's behaviors, proves we're in "beta," as the Social Age sneaks in. In other words, with the goings-on today, we're seeing a "trailer" before official release. Creators, reporters and journalists by means of videos circulating online proves the gradual welcoming of this Age. The punishment(s), the national and global mockery, and shame that such people get for their actions secures this point, plus this awareness of other people's behaviors, it's only going uphill. That doesn't mean the populace is ready to welcome this change but things are slowly shaping in such direction; We shouldn't be surprised of this reckoning and that those that break the law, spontaneously argue with others, assault those who disagree with them, live like they're above the law, are ones whose "membership" in society are numbered. Such people will not be aware of the message behind this blog post, let alone their actions, and it'll be too late for them to be given another chance; Violence, the silent treatment, emotional reactions and avoiding blame will not be tolerated in this coming Age.

I will go as far as to say that being rude, scamming, or taking advantage of other citizens will be a felony. This would depend on which state, but there's that likelihood such law will take place nationally (yes, as odd as it sounds, I can imagine a world where being rude or projecting your anger and insecurities on others to hurt them is punishable under law). Imagine the cruelty of someone and their insecurities becoming a crime because of wanting everyone else to be as miserable as they are; I'd love to see that. Having grown up with those who are unhappy and wanting to be someone else, it's distressing to say the least, and I'd have no problem seeing such law passed. After all, it's not society's fault you can't love yourself. No matter what age a person may be, it's time they try to get in touch with who they are and what's missing in their lives. Refusal to do that means some sort of public shaming since these people will encounter a situation where their true colors will spill (we're sure that their meltdowns will go public and/or recorded for the internet to see). This must serve them a valuable life lesson, and one not to be taken lightly as some entitled citizens have gotten in trouble with the law, while some have been jailed.

Having said all this should give us a valuable lesson: It's time to focus on the real issues plaguing our progress. At this point, many people are tired, ran out of patience and have no time to tolerate angry and uptight behaviors from those who never learn. As both these Ages make their way into the grand scheme of things, we still have time to adjust; Those who fall under such guises have time to find themselves and feel more secure. In summary, there's work to be done and it's time we establish and enjoy what Life is all about and not waste it "babysitting" other people.

I'm Kris and this is Food For The Saints.

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he started blogging in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, plus playing old video/MS-DOS games, digital video archiving, listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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