We’re Optimizing Ourselves to Death
Curated from: medium.com
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The Prisoner's Dilemma
It is a famous thought experiment in Game Theory. Two prisoners in separate interrogation rooms have two options: to confess or to lie, and this can lead to three outcomes:
- If both confess, they both serve eight years in prison.
- If both lie, then they both serve one year in prison.
- If one of them confesses and one of them lies, then the liar gets maximum prison and the confessor goes free.
This thought experiment tells us that when we make decisions, the ones which are taken by others also factors in.
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1.21K reads
The Millennials Dilemma
The Prisoners Dilemma can be reimagined as a life-optimization matrix. When two people have some free time due to a time-saving technique, they can spend it either on leisure or further work. This can have three outcomes:
- Both individuals choose to work harder in their free time, remaining in a constant state of acceleration
- Both individuals choose to relax and chill out.
- One of them works harder and gets ahead, while the other relaxes and is left behind in the acceleration.
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The Burnout Generation
Millennials are fast becoming the burnout generation, due to them treating free time as not leisure time, when they can relax and unwind, but as bonus time for them to work harder and up their game.
The hyperproductive, work-obsessed world is hell-bent to automate every to-do list item so that you can work more and create more to-do lists.
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Wage Stagnation
Tech companies optimize our lives by providing us services that save our time and money.
They earn absurdly well in the process, making the wages stagnant for the common man, increasing the disparity and inequality to earth-shattering levels.
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802 reads
The Domino Effect
Our past luxuries just end up being necessities in a blink of an eye, once people get used to them.
This also creates new obligations and the domino effect of a further set of expenses and tasks, leading to new kinds of services and optimizations.
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754 reads
Everyone’s Depressed
New kinds of exotic mental illnesses, which almost everyone has, make burnout and the falling health conditions normal to millennials.
The never-ending rat race is a rigged game, with the Millennials Dilemma being played out indefinitely, leading to co-operation. We keep on playing the rigged game, optimizing and working even more.
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