The bit about Aria was quite well-written and evocative, and it seems very plausible to me to suggest that some fraction of the populace would freak out if faced with actual abundance. I also like the suggestion that we do ethnographic research to see how exactly societies such as the Shakopee navigate their abundance, and what problems pop up there.
At the same time, you seem to be suggesting that the school environment caused Aria’s problems while also giving the impression that she was the only one in the school to do anywhere near that badly. That sounds like she would probably have been troubled anywhere. Even though her issues clearly didn’t get better during her time at your school, it’s not obvious to me that this would have been worse than the median outcome elsewhere.
Here, nobody reacted to her drug use, but like AlphaAndOmega mentions, someone else’s drug use may eventually lead to things like the justice system labeling them a young (and later adult) offender, failing classes in a school where they don’t have peers willing to bail them out, and finally getting abused and maltreated when they’re unable to defend themselves. Sure, some people will shape up and get their act together if genuinely forced to, but many will just spiral deeper.
I also feel like your essay is inconsistent about whether it’s painting this kind of a reaction as something only a small minority has to abundance, or as something that abundance would cause to everyone. You say “no one self-destructed quite like Aria”, but also “we could all be Aria”. You say “In a world of billions, even if a small percentage of people”, and then a couple of paragraphs later flip from ‘small percentage’ to ‘everyone’ with “In a world where everyone becomes like Aria, would we know what to do with ourselves?”.
While I think the implication that everyone would react this way is too strong, I also think that the essay doesn’t really need it—a problem that only a minority suffers from is still a problem! Assuming that AGI doesn’t just entirely wipe out humanity or otherwise make these kinds of questions irrelevant, I think all of your suggestions of what to do still make sense even if the problems aren’t something that literally everyone will suffer from.
The bit about Aria was quite well-written and evocative, and it seems very plausible to me to suggest that some fraction of the populace would freak out if faced with actual abundance. I also like the suggestion that we do ethnographic research to see how exactly societies such as the Shakopee navigate their abundance, and what problems pop up there.
At the same time, you seem to be suggesting that the school environment caused Aria’s problems while also giving the impression that she was the only one in the school to do anywhere near that badly. That sounds like she would probably have been troubled anywhere. Even though her issues clearly didn’t get better during her time at your school, it’s not obvious to me that this would have been worse than the median outcome elsewhere.
Here, nobody reacted to her drug use, but like AlphaAndOmega mentions, someone else’s drug use may eventually lead to things like the justice system labeling them a young (and later adult) offender, failing classes in a school where they don’t have peers willing to bail them out, and finally getting abused and maltreated when they’re unable to defend themselves. Sure, some people will shape up and get their act together if genuinely forced to, but many will just spiral deeper.
I also feel like your essay is inconsistent about whether it’s painting this kind of a reaction as something only a small minority has to abundance, or as something that abundance would cause to everyone. You say “no one self-destructed quite like Aria”, but also “we could all be Aria”. You say “In a world of billions, even if a small percentage of people”, and then a couple of paragraphs later flip from ‘small percentage’ to ‘everyone’ with “In a world where everyone becomes like Aria, would we know what to do with ourselves?”.
While I think the implication that everyone would react this way is too strong, I also think that the essay doesn’t really need it—a problem that only a minority suffers from is still a problem! Assuming that AGI doesn’t just entirely wipe out humanity or otherwise make these kinds of questions irrelevant, I think all of your suggestions of what to do still make sense even if the problems aren’t something that literally everyone will suffer from.