Technology Progress vs Human Meaning: Finding Self in the Algorithm Era

When AI can write weekly reports more fluently than you, draw more exquisite pictures than you, and even write more touching love poems than you, what is the meaning of "what makes a human being human"?

1. The End of Efficiency: When Work is No Longer the Purpose

For thousands of years, human self-worth has largely been built on "labor" and "creation." The original intention of technological progress was to improve efficiency and liberate humans from heavy physical labor.

But when AI starts taking over mental labor, we face a huge void: if everything can be efficiently replaced, what should we use our remaining time for?

2. The Uniqueness of Meaning: Process over Result

The power of AI lies in its direct output of "results." Human meaning, however, often exists in the "process."

It only takes a few seconds for AI to generate a picture; it has no struggle of thinking, no ups and downs of emotion. A painter painting a picture, however, may take months of deliberation and years of practice. That struggle, that imperfection, that game with the self—that is the soul of art and where human meaning lies.

3. Social & Emotional: Bonds That Cannot Be Digitized

We can chat with AI, even fall in love with AI. But that kind of authentic human bond built on shared vulnerability and shared finitude is something AI can never simulate.

The eye contact of two people, a sincere hug, a shared experience of overcoming difficulties—these "inefficient" or even "useless" moments constitute the thickness of human life.

4. Reshaping the Self in the Algorithm Era

Facing technological progress, we don't need to feel fear. On the contrary, this gives us an opportunity to re-examine ourselves. We can let go of those repetitive tasks that machines are better at and instead explore those areas that are more human: curiosity, empathy, aesthetics, and the pursuit of ultimate questions.

5. Conclusion

Technology is a ladder for evolution, but not a home for the soul. In the algorithm era, finding the self is not to defeat the machine, but to discover that unique human light in the mirror of the machine.