Bianca Lê

“AI can’t possibly know everything about biotech because some of it is tacit knowledge you can only experience first hand.” The tacit knowledge:

I generally agree that AI will precipitate a crisis of meaning. The most important work of our lives will be to rebuild a sense of purpose not tied to work. But the discourse is missing something. Americans, with our puritanical cultural heritage, are slow to appreciate the role of pleasure in a meaningful life. Pleasure, to Americans, is a dirty sin for which you are punished with obesity and professional failure. This belief system is particularly strong among Silicon Valley VCs, tech entrepreneurs and other winners in American capitalism. They didn’t get to be winners because they stopped to smell the roses. But outside the Calvinist bubble, many cultures have elevated pleasure to an art form and found deep meaning in it. The Epicureans, Edo period Japan, the royal court at Versailles. I believe that pleasure can provide meaning in a post-AI world and that the most meaningful pleasures are inherently biological. Biotechnology can make our bodies beautiful, our fruit sweet, and our planet lush and green. Is that not a life worth living? Is there any other future worth living in?