Part 2: Before the AI Singularity — The Expiration Date of My Value
This is a record of naming that anxiety — and checking just three things.
Will AI replace humans?
It’s a massive question. And somewhat abstract.
What I’m more concerned about is something far more practical — survival.
Will my income hold?
Will the value of my work remain intact?
More than unemployment,
what frightens me is the slow erosion of my value.
When jobs disappear, it makes headlines.
But when salaries shrink, no article is written.
They simply go down quietly, as if nothing happened.
And that silence
slowly eats away at my life.
Perhaps what we truly fear
is not unemployment itself,
but the expiration date of our value.
I. The Question We Overlook
The world is busy arguing about AI surpassing human intelligence.
But what I see more often in reality is not intelligence being surpassed —
it’s pricing being readjusted.
The same work.
The same hours.
Yet my share becomes smaller.
That is not a minor adjustment.
It is a crack in daily life.
Ray Kurzweil talks about immortality in 2045,
but my bank account has already hovered near extinction several times.
Human evolution is fascinating.
But right now, I need this month’s gas bill to evolve first.
It’s ironic.
But it’s not something to laugh off.
II. The Moment You Compete with the Average
AI produces the average remarkably well.
Fast. Cheap. Acceptable.
The problem is that one day,
I find myself competing with that “almost-free average.”
The moment I compete with the average,
I am no longer a specialist.
I become just one option among many.
Options are compared.
And once compared, prices fall.
Even if I don’t disappear,
my value can vanish first.
III. Why “Just Study More” Feels Unfair
People say,
“Study AI. Learn new skills.”
I have already spent 20 years learning through real-world failures.
And now I’m told to study again.
It feels like this:
What I need right now
is not a grand theory,
but a bucket of water.
Anxiety is not laziness.
It is the result of a structure being reshaped at scale.
What I fear is not AI itself,
but my value being reshaped within it.
IV. So I Decided to Check Just Three Things
Grand plans don’t last.
So I chose to ask myself three simple questions.
1. Is My Work “Average”?
If anyone can do it by following instructions,
it will inevitably become cheaper.
2. Does My Work Carry Responsibility?
AI can generate answers.
But it does not take responsibility.
3. Have I Turned Experience into an Asset?
If I solve and forget, it remains labor.
If I document and structure it, it becomes an asset.
I do not want my value to disappear first.
I chose to examine the structure that protects my place today.
