The Dream Job
“I am exhausted”, I declared to my friend Pam. “It is so strange. I know I shouldn’t feel that way but there it is”. “Is it every day Sheila, or just today”, asked Pam? “It has been like this for a month now. I don’t know what to do anymore”. “I think you should check with the doctor once Pam. This is indeed strange. Whoever heard of waking up tired after a good night’s sleep!”.
In a sense, Pam was right. I should not be feeling tired at all. Not only me. Anybody really. Exactly 50 years ago, Dr Anderson of Robotics Inc., created all-purpose-robots or APRs for short which take care of our every need. APRs handle all the mundane things like building, transportation, government, teaching, mining, engineering, law, policing, medicine, agriculture and more. There is no need in the world for anybody to work anymore! We all pursue art and entertainment and the world has never been a better place. People are healthier, happier and live longer! But, why do I feel tired?
I visited the doctor — well an APR of course and explained the reason for my visit. The APR was silent for a minute and then told that it was impossible. “Nobody should be tired! Are you sure you are not trying to do too much in the day like playing or running and getting tired?”. When I rejected that assumption, the APR just gave me a pill to sleep better and to stop all activities for a week to recuperate.
I took the pill that day and slept. I slept well. But, I dreamt that night. The weird part was, I dreamt of work! I was working in an office with many people around. I was sorting through a lot of documents, categorising them, tagging them and making sense of it all. It looked like a lot of hard mental work. Then, I woke up. I had this nagging feeling that I was indeed working in that office which was causing me to be tired. But, how? I never left my house to go there.
I decided to post about my experience on my blog and social media. The day I did, my post went viral with thousands of other people liking and sharing my blog. Many commented that they too were feeling tired but did not say anything as it didn’t make sense. I sighed in relief that I was not the only one. Then, a few days later, an interesting thing happened. Dr. Anderson himself contacted me and asked me to meet him in Robotics HQ. Though I did not understand why he would want to meet me I readily agreed.
I was welcomed by Dr. Anderson himself and I went into his room. It was neatly furnished and as soon as I entered an APR brought us some beverages and left. Dr. Anderson looked at me intently and asked, “Have you seen exactly what you do in those dreams you see?”. I told that I didn’t but it did involve a lot of documents, sorting, tagging etc. He nodded and became thoughtful. Finally, he broke the silence and said, “Sheila, 50 years ago when I came up with APR technology the world embraced it well. It made me rich beyond my wildest dreams. All the governments agreed to remove work as a requirement and my APRs have been handling it well. But, there came a time when knowledge work was required to be done which involved either very expensive AI machines or simply use humans who are natural at that job. For example, looking at a picture and deciding if it is a picture of a boat or a bus or a tree. That is very easy for a human but very difficult for a machine. On the other hand, building a 10 storey tower is quite simple for a machine but very difficult or at least requires lot of effort for a human. Do you understand me?”.
I was shocked. I asked him if he was forcing all of us to work for him without our knowledge. He agreed. But, said that it was for the social media and other technological companies. I asked, how he was getting us to work without us knowing? He replied, “I harvested your minds and created a partition in your brains. One part works while the other rests. You were not supposed to realise at all but somehow you slipped through. When you wrote about it, the others realised it too. I need your help Sheila. Can you go back and write in your blog that whatever you wrote was fiction? I will compensate you well. Else, the entire world economy will come crashing with this”, he threatened.
After a lot of thought, I consented. But, not before making him remove that partition in my mind and a promise he will remove in others minds as well. He would now ask permission from people to work in their dreams and will also compensate them suitably without taking advantage of them. He agreed and I left feeling I had just saved the world. If I did, then, why do I have this sinking feeling that I am an APR myself now?
The Dream Job was originally published in Pradeep Kaushik on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.