This is a valid question, but not intended to hype even more the apocalyptic forecasts of AI's impact on the human workforce.
No, this moment into my thoughts aims to invite you to consider the implications of Fuller's statement from the context of his book as a parallel to our life. Your life.
In his book, Fuller makes reference to the over-specialization of people into what he calls "automatons". To me, anyone who lives on auto-pilot, over-specialized or not, already is an automaton. This is not a judgement. Life is difficult, and being on auto-pilot is - for many of us - the only way to cope with it and handle it on a day to day basis. But that doesn't make it right.
Behind the actual process of being on auto-pilot, there is something darker and more tragic - a strategic devaluation of who we are and of our lives by a system designed to extract maximum profit from each individual while at the same time - ironically - pushing the value of most individuals as low as commercially possible, while inflating the value of few others in order to maintain a necessary hierarchy, vital to the sustainability of exploitative systems such as our civilization, and especially capitalist societies. But this leads into the more complex reasons why we become automatons, which is not the point of my current writing, albeit it should be of some degree of concern to everyone reading this.
"Automation Displaces Automatons"
This is the amazing foresight expressed by Fuller - that at some point in the future, automation - in every form it may take - will displace people who exist within the system with the sole purpose (for the system) to perform over-specialized tasks. That future is now.
Automation has existed for a long while already, in its primitive form. At its most aggressive level, in manufacturing, it has impacted tens of millions of lives and, consequentially, it has shaped societies down to almost every level of functioning. However, the rise of AI has changed the rules of the "game" and it is about to disrupt how every single human alive participates and interacts with their society. AI, as it is today in 2026, marks the beginning of a level of automation probably merely imagined by Buckminster Fuller in 1969.
While most of today's articles and studies focus on how AI will replace human workers and eventually eliminate a vast majority of the workforce - which also could be the subject of another article, but not this one - I sit here wondering about something deeper and darker altogether.
Fuller chose a very specific word for how automation will impact humans: displacement - the forced movement of people from one habitual position (or status) to another. Not only that, but Fuller specified in his prediction that the automatons in particular will eventually be displaced.
This, to me, points to a frightening prospect for those humans: total, absolute loss of control.
This begs the need to clarify who is an automaton and who is not. I used the term human on auto-pilot while Fuller refers to over-specialized people. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. To add to the conundrum, unless they are a farmer in a remote village and away from technology, probably everyone on this planet is exposed to automation processes, thus, being conditioned to also function on auto-pilot. Take a minute to see if you can identify all the repetitive patterns in your daily life. You will find a slew. The civilization we have built is built on systems and structure, predictability and efficiency, profit and segmentation. This is achieved via automation.
A higher degree of automation points to a higher degree of efficiency, and within a transactional society - socialist or capitalist - efficiency is profit and output…and profit is exploitation. One common element throughout all forms of economic or political frameworks is the necessity for consumption. Profit is directly related to how much humans consume. The lower the cost of production and the higher the rate of consumption - the higher the profit.
Up to a point.
Enter AI, in its current iteration and the global context of unprecedented investments in AI infrastructure and implementation. AI is exponentially expanding automation at ALL levels of our functioning as a civilization. NO part of human life will remain untouched and unaffected by AI processing. It will lead to such a degree of efficiency that we are already wondering if we - humans - will still be necessary. I believe that we are looking at this from the wrong angle.
AI is not only exponentially expanding efficiency. AI is modifying the civilization code, dramatically accelerating changes in our perception of reality, fundamentally transforming human culture, and slowly but systematically building an entirely new value system. What we thought were human values is fading away, being replaced by human reason outsourced to the machine. Human life itself, turned into algorithms. This is where the displacement will occur, and it has already started.
While observed from a bird’s eye view this new reality seems inevitable, we, as human beings, can still retain the sovereignty of our essence - as long as we do not voluntarily surrender it. As human beings, we must consciously choose to be human, to not allow ourselves to forget what it means to be a living creature among other living things. We must consciously choose to witness nature in all of its forms and manifestations while fully embracing our place, role, and vulnerability within it. We must change our ways, or else - as a species - we will be displaced. If not us, then our children for certain.
We can argue of course that we are human, but are we really? Again, this is about observing, analyzing, comparing, and accepting the data that points to all of us becoming increasingly over-specialized and increasingly operating on auto-pilot for more and more of our time alive.
The degree to which we will be displaced by AI depends entirely on our willingness to understand the necessity to chance and actually change. The very purpose of automation is to reach absolute efficiency, which cannot be achieved outside of structure and systems. Even if we are to assume an absolutely benevolent technocrat ruling elite in control of designing the future of our civilization, absolute automation will inevitably lead to the fundamental restructuring of human life as we know it.
The problem is that AI-based automation will slowly depart from the necessity of profit, therefore, at some point, the rate of human consumption will be rendered irrelevant. The signs already point to this shift. Currently, the fear is that AI will eliminate millions of jobs. Under a less benevolent ruling class, AI will eventually eliminate humans after eliminating jobs, but it will do so through a process of displacement - a lethal combination of cultural, socio-economic, and ideological erosion of our system of values. Our species' degree of individual automation is already becoming our most dangerous vulnerability. Isolation and decreased cooperation in real-time, in-person, and across all cultural boundaries will prove to be our greatest liability.
Most humans will feel that they have no choice but to accept and become collaborators in this new AI-driven takeover. Their fear will lead to their surrender in order to acquire or maintain a minimal level of safety, comfort, along with some illusory sense of control. This too is normal, as our survival instinct can and will override all reason.
While short of a miracle or a disaster of some sorts the AI takeover of our civilization is currently unavoidable, surrendering human spirit is not. We can still turn things around, albeit it will be a multi-generational effort. It is not only possible, but also vital to do so.
Only automatons can be displaced. AI by itself has no power over the human spirit. AI designed and controlled by humans does. We are at a flexion point, or rather a transitional period that is quickening. We must quicken our willingness to reach out to each other, collaborate, help one another, care for one another. If AI automates human relationships, our entire species will be displaced.
Remaining comfortably numb ensures our obsolescence.
After a period of long analysis through the lenses of my own experience as a human and also as a parent, I have come to the conclusion that a certain element of knowledge transmission might play a crucial role in the future of my own children along with all of our future generations. Up to now, we believed that the continuity of our civilization can be accomplished via two forces - genetic transmission and knowledge transmission. I now believe that a third force must rapidly emerge to counter the collapse of knowledge transmission and the possibly diminishing genetic pool via an artificially induced global crisis. Thus, a new project is taking shape to state the case for the need of such new emergence. If you are willing to help in any way, I invite you to join me.
The encrypted form below lets me know you would like to help me bring this project to life. I will reach back to you with details and gratitude.
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