The Aquarian Age and AI

The next issue of Proust Said That, due to come out sometime between now and then, concentrates on the coming of the Age of Aquarius, which we’ve been hearing about since the 1979 release of the film, Hair. It’s supposed to usher in a new age on earth of harmony and understanding, which presumably includes a more equitable distribution of resources, the prerequisite for harmony. Most astrologers set the date for the actual beginning of the Aquarian Age for January of 2023.

Proust mentioned astrologers a few times in his magnum opus, and of course he lived in the same era as Mme. Blavatsky and metaphysical chic. He, too, envisioned a better world in the not-too-distant future:

“I found myself… in an unknown world,

and everything that followed only confirmed…

that this world was one of those

which I had never even been capable of imagining.”

—The Captive

January 2023 was hardly euphoric. People around the world killed each other in wars, and in America, because of sheer mental illness fueled by propaganda. Fascists insinuated themselves wherever possible. Politicians lied and eviscerated each other. A mentally frayed exhaustion descended on most followers of the Trump trials. Department stores and other large businesses collapsed, because it got so expensive to live, and income disparity had become so unbridled, that few had much money to spend. And then, AI burst upon us and the economy.

Writers were one of the first casualties of AI, because most things done by writers require minimal brilliance. Those are the jobs freelancers do between good sales. But suddenly there were fewer freelance gigs, fewer staff writers at magazines, and the writing situation nose-dived even further. Sports writing was the first kind to go. We weren’t the only ones getting replaced by bots, either. According to Forbes, in the next few years, AI will replace 330 million jobs.

The dystopian possibilities stagger the mind, especially thinking of the huge swathes of people devoid of careers, raging poverty, and in the meanwhile, the people who own businesses and no longer need to pay employees get massively richer. And since AI’s source of knowledge is the internet, half of which is a cesspool of misinformation, things might get weird for a while, until specialized AI sources compiled academic knowledge and some control is exercised on misinformation—perhaps it’s a job prospect for unemployed intellectuals.

On the other hand, there’s this: what if there was a program in place to deal with job displacement? What if there was a reasonable universal basic income waiting for the workers replaced by robots? Who wouldn’t be happy to know they could pay the bills without working, except at what they loved to do? A hefty Bot Tax on the beneficiaries of AI—business owners and AI companies most certainly—could pay for it. People might still find other sources of income, too. Writers might become prized for their authenticity, and make more than ever, but this is wishful thinking. Surely it would relieve a whole lot of financial anxiety to know you could survive without a job. People would be more relaxed, less tired, and in a better mood. Maybe AI is the force that will bring on promise of the Aquarian Age.

Or maybe not.