IdeaVerse - The inconveniece of convenient lives

## What IdeaVerse is about

We meet usually once a month to discuss some of the current challenges as well and perhaps come up with new ideas on how to overcome them. The format of the meeting includes an initial sharing of viewpoints by each participant without judgment, and in the second half we will discuss our ideas and try to find things to learn from each other.

In this next meeting we'll be discussing...
how having more is giving us less. What do I mean by that?
Almost a century ago, modern philosopher Bertrand Russell saw how much automation is allowing for more efficient ways of production:

“If the ordinary wage‑earner worked four hours a day there would be enough for everybody, and no unemployment.” — In Praise of Idleness (1932)

And yet here we are, almost a century later, still working 8 hours a day, 5 times a week, and not having all that much leisure time.

All this productivity efficiency has not led to more and more leaisure, it was just transformed into profit. Workers will always need to produce value for shareholders, and are not allowed to work less for the same pay no matter how much automation makes things easier.

And it doesn't end with clocked time. When economies have a surplus of products, you need people to consume them. As such, people have another job when they leave "work": to spend their hard earned money buying those products. Aldous Huxley's book, A brave new world, was based on this very premise, that people's main functions in a capitalistic society are to produce and to spend, and should not be allowed to do anything else. In fact, they were genetically bred for that in a dystopian future.

Products now are designed to be adictive, as a way to get people to buy them in excess of what is actually needed for a healthy life.

Products today are not only addictive, they are also readily available: the sweets positioned near the checkout counters, with bright colourfull packaging, adds on every screen, AI plastered where it doesn't make sense and nobody wants. Worst of all is the smartphone, something that used to be used for calling people and is now our anxiety relief, and cause.

The question we'll be trying to answer this time is:
Is it convenient to:
- know the answer to any question
- talk to people around the world
- order at your door anything you want, including a new lover?

Or are all these things actually inconvenient by robbing us of peace of mind and actual happiness?

Some resources to get us started:

1. The Rise of the Machines – Why Automation is Different this Time (10 minute video) - good overview of history of work and why maybe AI will finally increase leisure time (or leave averyone without a job).
   2. [...] sweet and salty snacks are as addictive as alcohol and cigarettes (5 minute read) - processed food (not cabbage!) causes a release of dopamine simikar to alcohol and tobacco.
2. The addiction economy (15 minute Medium.com read) - it's a long one but nails down our topic pretty well.

The meeting is free to attend, but please buy a drink or two at our patron's place, to make them happy. They also have food in case you get hungry (see menu).