E7: Humanity is the Solution's Problem; S14: Or Tony Stark (or maybe Cher). Hello Dolly. Goodbye. In 5 Billion Years (or less)

<p>What this episode may be saying is that I am trying to figure out what to do with my life.</p><p>So rather than describe the episode, I am going to present some possible answers for what I’m supposed to do with my life, based entirely on the evidence contained herein.</p><p>Here are the top 15 candidates for how I’m doing with figuring that out:</p><ol><li><strong>Make things.</strong> Apparently the effort required to make something difficult gives me pleasure, especially when I think it worked.</li><li><strong>Make unnecessary things.</strong> Necessary things already have people working on them. Also, Moby may eventually remix one of the unnecessary things.</li><li><strong>Solve problems.</strong> This creates new problems, which means I will never run out of work.</li><li><strong>Solve the problems created by the solutions to the previous problems.</strong> This appears to be most of human civilization anyway.</li><li><strong>Keep an eye on things.</strong> Air. Water. Crops. Disease. Weather. The Sun. Somebody should.</li><li><strong>Try not to confuse intervention with completion.</strong> We can solve things for a while. “For a while” may be the only available warranty.</li><li><strong>Figure out how much is enough.</strong> Enough pleasure. Enough challenge. Enough people. Enough attention. Enough likes, views, shares, and comments. Apparently I need some. Apparently I do not need all of them.</li><li><strong>Be consequential to a manageable number of organisms.</strong> Partner, dogs, family, friends, coworkers, listeners. Role pressure may be one of the ways a human body knows it exists.</li><li><strong>Commune with human thought.</strong> Sometimes this involves other humans directly. Sometimes it involves AI. If something interesting happens in my nervous system either way, I am increasingly unclear about why I’m supposed to be embarrassed.</li><li><strong>Create media so I have something sufficiently complicated to consume.</strong> Other people can consume it too if they want. That would provide additional likes, views, shares, and comments.</li><li><strong>Resist the proposition that more is automatically better.</strong> More may be lovely. Less may be lovely. The question appears to be whether the particular organism has enough to keep doing whatever strange thing it does next.</li><li><strong>Remain suspicious of urgency.</strong> The river is flooding. The grid is failing. The hospital needs power. PRIME DAY STARTS SOON. Unfortunately they are all competing for the same nervous system.</li><li><strong>Do not rely entirely on Tony Stark.</strong> Even after the difficult ontological work of making him real, we may instantiate the wrong cardiovascular continuity.</li><li><strong>If Tony Stark fails, try Cher.</strong> She appears to have demonstrated a more robust long-term maintenance strategy, although after losing Dolly we may need to increase the plastic-surgery budget to hold up her immortality.</li><li><strong>Keep going because we are in the middle.</strong> Earth ends. The Sun changes the terms. Every settlement is temporary. Every solution alters the conditions. Nothing here appears to come with a forever clause.</li></ol><p>So what am I supposed to do with my life?</p><p>I don’t know.</p><p>Look around. Something changed.</p><p>Can I do anything about it?</p><p>Probably.</p><p>Will that change something else?</p><p>Definitely.</p><p>Good.</p><p>That should keep me busy.</p>