Schools of Thought

I was commuting this morning and had a rush of thoughts on how to tackle adversity, or any roadblocks in life. I have seen that there are generally two schools of thought when we're pushed against the wall

There's one that believes that whatever problem we're facing is unlike anything we've seen before. This time is different. And there are countless historical examples that showcase this:

• Even going back to Greek philosophers such as Plato, there was deep worry of soil degradation and not having enough food for the growing human population. Humans were destroying the natural world! (already see some modern parallels to this - do you?)

• We see this with global warming - many places in the world are deemed to be near inhospitable in the future based on our trajectory

• Many key inventions of the past show this as well. Copper allowed the proliferation of modern electricity - but many worried (and still do to this day) about running out of this valuable metal and the impact this would have on the world

• In fact, there's some that take the other side of this and worry that if we keep extracting such metals in the same fashion, we will keep polluting the world leading to significant health issues and a negative impact to civilization

OR there's another school of thought. One that beleives that humans are incredibly creative and are more likely to come up with solutions to these problems. Just like we have in the past:

• We found more efficient ways to grow food and lots more of it! New crop varieties, fertilizers, and farming techniques transformed agriculture. Agricultural output almost 4x'ed in the last 50 years, far surpassing the population growth in that time

• Many startups continue to work on renewable technology that allows us to diversify away from fossil fuels and significantly slow down the impact that global warming can have

• We found resource substitutes - although copper continues to be widely used, aluminum is often used as a substitute for overhead electricity transmission. We've found new copper reserves and found ways to recycle and reuse

• We found more effective and efficient ways to extract key elements from the Earth. They're way less energy intensive, less dangerous, and more economical!

These contrasting schools of thought seem especially relevant today in the age of AI. It's everywhere - I walk into a NYC subway station and I see ads of companies and their agents all over the place. Ads that were likely built or crafted by agents themselves! So there is no denying that it is having a huge impact on how we work and what we work on Will it replace jobs? Yes, there are some jobs more at risk than others. Will it disrupt industries? Probably, to a certain extent. Will it create problems we don't even know of right now? I wouldn't be surprised But here's the question.

What school of thought will you follow? What camp will you be in? There's a lot of talk about how AI is "unlike any other invention of the past". And I understand that argument. But the perceived problems are awfully similar. The fear that we won't be able to adapt. The fear that there will be mass unemployment beyond anything imaginable. The fear that we will lose control and humanity will be at risk. And while we can't peek out into the future, we can look at the past and see that history is filled with similar problems that seemed equally impossible.

And if we beat the odds in the past, what makes you think that we can't in the future?