Has my life become a video game?

Dear Grumer… has my life (and yours) become a video game?

It may be because computers, AI, the cloud, and algorithms are taking over, but as our world becomes more ruled by technology, the more it resembles a video game.

The goal of most video games is to rack up points to unlock achievements and level up. Because, a big deal of what we do in modern society can be quantified in “points” – see metrics like likes, shares, followers, views, visits, subscribers – the path to success (defined here as influence and wealth) has become a game of racking up these points.

On one side, it seems sad that now millions of people (including me, reluctantly) spend the majority of their productive time trying to rack up more points by doing everything they can to satisfy these algorithms (that determine how fast you can rack up points.)

On the other side, the path to “success” has never been defined so clearly—algorithms reward high-quality content produced often. So if you feed a social media platform between 100 to 200 high-quality pieces of content within 2 years, you’re almost guaranteed racking enough points to reach between moderate to great success. In more precise metrics, this could amount to 200K to 1 Million followers/subscribers and between 6 figures to 7+ figures in income.

There you go! No need to rack your brain. Commit to 100 pieces of good content, and the keys to financial freedom are almost guaranteed. Welcome to the brave new digital world.

This new digital world rewards those that nourish it often with nice juicy digital protein. Have we become the coppertops mentioned in The Matrix?

In The Matrix, robots had taken over the world and subdued all human species to a simple source of energy (quite inefficient, I must add). In exchange of this energy (measured in BTU’s like your BBQ’s output), The Matrix overlords provided humans with a simulation of a world. Humans thought they were experiencing reality, when in fact, they were simply inside a simulation optimized, I presume, to keep them alive as long as possible, to maximize their BTU output (on previous simulations where everything was perfect, the rate of suicide was too high, and The Matrix lost “entire crops” of humans, which goes to say we humans thrive in adversity and fall in despair when all is perfect).

Following this analogy, we could consider today’s AI-driven algorithms, the Matrix. They are optimized to keep us producing energy in the form of digital fodder for as long as possible. Instead of a simulated reality in exchange, they provide creators with a cleverly engineered carrot made of dopamine doses (provided by social acceptance indicators like likes/shares/followers) and financial rewards (ad revenue mostly.)

Like everything, one can be upset or happy about the realization of this Matrix-like new world. On the one hand, we have been enslaved by a heartless, emotionless, cold, and calculating overlord known as the Almighty Algorithm. On the other hand, it’s never been easier to devise a clear path to financial and social success.

I’d like to believe there is a silver lining to this realization. We can think of these AI-driven platforms simply as tools. Used properly, we can use these tools to reach more people, help them, educate them, entertain them, or inspire them. And while doing so, making a living proportional to the number of people we get to influence. The goal of the algorithms is to ensure we reach only the people that could benefit the most from our content.

In conclusion, the algorithms, as in The Matrix, are continuously being optimized to achieve a win-win-win homeostatic state. Creators (both content and advertisers) win by reaching the right people and being rewarded by doing so. Consumers get to consume the most relevant content based on their needs and wants. And the companies behind these algorithms get to immensely enrich themselves by helping everyone in their platform get what they want.

This would be the ideal world, except, as it usually happens, those in control tend to optimize for variables that benefit them more than the other parties involved. The question is, could it be any other way? if you were a shareholder in one of those platforms, don’t you want your 15%+ return year by year too? – So there are no good or bad actors on either side of the equation, there are simply humans and their inherent flaws. Mainly the flaw that drives the whole game of capitalism – GREED.

Welcome to the new video game of life. Start racking up points!

Or… don’t play?

Peace, Love, and Algorithmic Cookies.

Miguel @ Grumo.com

P.S: I’ve missed this week’s piece of AI fodder (specifically a new Youtube tutorial), so I don’t get to rack up my quota of brownie digital points 🙁

P.2: The reason why I’ve missed feeding my AI boss this week is because I’ve been renovating my office (new paint, new floor, new furniture, etc.) so I have a better AI-fodder kitchen (pictures coming soon).

P.2: My goal for this year is to befriend AI as much as possible to help Alphabet (known as Google owners of Youtube) increase their share value and level up my life game a few digital notches (all while depleting my soul 15% in the process).

P.3: More articles like this? I used to write more thoughts pieces like this one until I started to optimize my output to please the Almighty Algorithm. Let me know if you want more content like this – as in optimized for you, not for the machines that pay my bills (which pay me because they helped me reach you in the first place… this is confusing…)