What We Should Do In A Rapidly Changing World? Here Are Books Giving Us Hints

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The rise of ChatGPT is likely – or has already started – to change our lives. At one point, I found a YouTube video saying ChatGPT could solve some programming quizzes. Indeed, I could see ChatGPT solved programming quizzes with astonishing ease. It could generate the answer in several programming languages. Being a bit inspired, I also tried a similar thing. I asked ChatGPT a programming-related question. It gave me a solution in a few seconds. The answer was correct. It was impressive. I couldn't help but think the day may come when many (if not all) software engineers (including I) will lose their jobs, as said in this article.

ChatGPT will evolve further, and there will be many more life-changing technologies, not just ChatGPT. So what should we do in such an era? In this post, I'd like to share the thought-provoking books helping us find answers to the question.

PCB circuit board of electronic device
Photo by Umberto on Unsplash

The Evolution of Human Science

The Evolution of Human Science is a fictional story by Ted Chiang. It's included in Stories of Your Life and Others. Stories of Your Life is well known as the basis of the film Arrival. Still, The Evolution of Human Science is not as famous as that. It's a very short story about an age when human intelligence can no longer keep up with metahuman intelligence.

The author depicts what human scientists will do if metahumans' frontier of scientific knowledge is far more advanced than that of humans. Some of them quit their job because of their work of searching for scientific truth being deprived of by metahumans. And some change their direction; they start to interpret the outcomes from metahumans' scientific research instead of conducting scientific research by their hands.

Back to the real world now, we may face a similar situation in the near future. Though metahumans will not take human scientists' seats soon, how about other jobs? For example, software engineer. It is said that quite a few software engineers do copy-and-paste programming without understanding what the code does. Those kinds of software engineers will give way to ChatGPT or its alternative shortly. Or even non-copy-and-paste programmers may face the problem of losing their jobs, as this article points out.

I talked about software engineers as I'm one of them, but it's not limited to software engineers. What will we do when AI replaces your job? We need to consider this question.

The Future Is Faster Than You Think

Although the sentences ChatGPT generates look like a human being wrote them, there is much room for improvement in the authenticity of the content. For this reason, Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for programmers, temporarily bans the answer ChatGPT generates. According to Stack Overflow,

Overall, because the average rate of getting correct answers from ChatGPT is too low,

Then the question arises; when will the average rate of getting correct answers from ChatGPT become so high that we can rely on ChatGPT? I can't tell. Another solution may come into existence.

However, The Future Is Faster Than You Think suggests that new technologies, not just ChatGPT, advance faster than we think. The book says the human brain tends to view things linearly and fails to appreciate technology's exponentially growing speed adequately.

This book predicts quite an astonishing future. Although the predictions presented in the book are intriguing, my main takeaway is that we must prepare ourselves for the potential of an unforeseeable future. This book makes me think that I need to keep updating myself so that I don't get left behind by technological advances.

A Whole New Mind

Technologies advance rapidly in the world we live in today. They are replacing our jobs. In order not to get deserted, what should we do? A Whole New Mind, which changed my life, gives us hints.

Before considering what we should do, we should know who will be replaced by new technologies. The book's answer is a person without R-Directed Thinking. R-Directed Thinking is a way of thinking with right-brain characteristics. It is simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic. The counterpart is L-Directed Thinking, a form of thinking with left-brain properties. It is sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic.

So what should we do? Acquire and strengthen our R-Directed Thinking. Of course, L-Directed Thinking is indispensable, but it's not enough. L-Directed Thinking has become commoditized, and it's what computers are good at. So, we need R-Directed Thinking, which hasn't yet become commoditized and is more humanistic.

When it comes to myself, I used to be a kind of textbook of L-Directed Thinking. I liked to think logically and was fond of my logical thinking ability. However, after reading A Whole New Mind, I understood it was insufficient. That realization broadened my perspective.

Start with Why

Start with Why is Simon Sinek's book that introduces the concept of starting with purpose and belief to achieve success. In the book, the author explains that identifying and communicating your "WHY" can create a sense of direction and inspire action from others. Using examples from successful companies such as Apple and Southwest Airlines, the author shows how starting with WHY can lead to greater loyalty and success.

Although the book mainly focuses on inspiring others, what it tells us also applies to inspiring ourselves. Before inspiring others, we need to inspire ourselves. In today's world, where new technologies emerge and advance rapidly, many jobs will vanish, as the automation of telephone switching affected telephone operators. To live in a rapidly changing world, we must constantly update ourselves. For example, as A Whole New Mind says, a person of typical L-Directed Thinking needs to acquire R-Directed Thinking. In the update process, WHAT we do or How we do them will change. To identify where we want to go and direct ourselves there, we need WHY. If we have no WHY, we may cling to our WHAT or HOW even though we can't do that or get lost in nowhere. Start with Why tells us that.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is the third book in his trilogy, preceded by Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. While Sapiens delves into the history of human beings and Homo Deus examines the future of humanity, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century focuses on the current challenges facing humanity.

Regarding the rapid development of technology and the resulting changes in our work and education, the author is concerned about a future in which technologies will not only replace our jobs but also take every job away from us and make us feel meaningless. To prevent such a future, we must constantly educate ourselves to keep technologies from leaving us behind.

The book is thought-provoking in many ways. If you haven't read it, how about reading it and thinking about your future?

I've introduced several books that are thought-provoking to us living in a world where technologies advance fast beyond our expectations. What will happen to us? What should we do to live with meaning? Those books help us find hints.

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