David Shapiro · Tech & AI
TIER 4 Thu, 2 Apr 2026 11:12:40 +0000
Unpacking the ontological vertigo of an automation job apocalypse ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ | | ---|---|--- | | | Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more --- # Why AI Job Loss Feels Existential ### Unpacking the ontological vertigo of an automation job apocalypse | | David Shapiro --- | Apr 2 --- | --- --- | | | --- | | --- | | --- | | --- | | READ IN APP --- Humanity as a doxa about labor. A _doxa_ is an unspoken belief, something that supersedes dogma. Our labor doxa is what I call _the Assumption of the Indispensability of Labor._ Or AIL for short, pronounced like 'ale.' For all of human history, and proto-human history, human effort was irreplaceable. While humans might be fungible to an extent, with similarly trained humans being able to occupy similar roles in society, humanity itself was non-fungible. From a first principles view of humans, we have three abilities that make use unique: _sensors, processing, and actuators._ We have our five basic senses to scan the environment and update information, then we have big brains that can reason, solve problems, remember, and learn, and then we have hands and muscles that can manipulate the world, move us around, and use tools. Each one of those abilities is great, but they are also tightly bundled into a feedback loop that makes us unique both in the animal kingdom, as well as economically. The assumption of indispensability, however, has metaphysical connotations as well. We are the best servants of God and the People, but if machines replace us, then we are not just economically useless, we become _metaphysically irrelevant._ Let me explain. # Gods of the East and West In Western culture, we've been inculcated by the Judeo-Christian worldview for about fifteen centuries. In this cosmology, all of Heaven and Earth was created by one Creator above all. _Magnus Dei._ The Big God. Everything exists (or is destroyed) at the behest and pleasure of that supreme being. In the Nietzschean tradition, this deity is the Master. The source of all morality, judgment, values, purpose, ambition. We are merely Slaves. Part of Nihilism is the recognition that "slave morality" won, in that we all are merely recipients of edicts, values, morality, and authority from some higher power. In fact, we have parables warning against trying to change this. Lucifer attempted to conquer heaven, to become the Master, and was cast into Hell. Adam and Eve ate of the apple of knowledge, and were cast out of Eden. Prometheus stole fire from the Olympians and was cursed for it. The lesson is crystal clear: _thou shalt not attempt to claim the mantle of Master._ To do so is anathema to literally every foundation of Western civilization. In this model, we are forever laborers for a deity. Even in a more secularized West, we have merely replaced God and the Church with Capitalism and the State. We worship at the shrine of Neoliberalism and elevate the High Priests of Capitalism--the successful billionaires--to mythic status. The East is no different. In Eastern cultures (namely India, Japan, and China), God is replaced by the People. We often say they are more "collectivist" societies, and this means that your existence is predicated upon your roles in society. This is explicit under the Confucius traditions; you literally do not exist outside the various roles you fulfill to family and society. Where the West venerates productivity and output, the teleological outcome of labor, the East valorizes the process itself--the visible struggling, suffering, friction, and dignity of labor. We may have the Protestant work ethic, but India has _tapas_ , China has _ch īkǔ_, and Japan has _ganbaru_ and _gaman._ _Tapas_ is the heat or friction of worthy struggling, the karmic purification of suffering labor. In other words, the suffering of hard work, regardless of outcome, is spiritually valuable. _Ch īkǔ_ literally means "eating bitterness" but translates to the morality of endurance; that loyalty and moral worth to the familial or social collective are demonstrated through sweat and sacrifice. _Ganbaru_ means to "slog on tenaciously" but beyond that, it holds that stretching oneself, and the effort itself, is of moral worth. _Gaman_ , finally, comes from Zen Buddhism, and roughly means "enduring the unbearable with dignity." It is an active, stoic composure that eschews complaint in order to maintain social harmony and prove moral strength. Hustle culture is global. # The Internalized Panopticon We self-monitor, self-censor, and self-police. Why? In the West, it is because God is omniscient. Even though we have largely become secularized, the doxa of God remains. The idea that should feel guilty if you are not working hard. Idle hands do the Devil's work. Laziness is sinful. Even as someone who never attended church in my life, these cultural values seep in. That is the nature of doxa; the fish does not know that water is wet. Likewise, in the East, the Collective or the People serve as the same archetype. They internalize the social gaze and values, creating a similar panopticon. Guilt and shame are pervasive tools of coercion in both East and West. This panopticon has a few characteristics: observation, discernment, judgment, and accounting. We internalize the archetype of the Panopticon, and then call it God, or the People, or Society, or the Company. It doesn't matter. Capitalism and hustle culture and wellness culture and self-help culture all do the same thing. This is a feature of the human animal, not of any particular culture, religion or tradition. _I am constantly measuring my value against the Master 's morality. _The 'Master' is just God or the People. We have mentally setup a Master-Slave dynamic between ourselves as individuals and a larger hyperobject. Be it the abstract concept of the divine or the abstract concept of society. In secular economics, we simply call this the principal-agent problem. In the West, God has always been the moral and economic principal. All directives, values, and goals flow from God. Even if it feels like its your own, it is not. The divine spark lives in you. All your talents, abilities, and fortunes you owe to God. You are merely Gods mortal servant on Earth. Whether or not you explicitly believe this, it does not matter, because this doxa has shaped literally everything in Western civilization. The Master's mental figment, the archetype, simply reestablishes itself on another hyperobject. Nationalism, MAGA, capitalism, neoliberalism, health, productivity. All of them become Masters in your mind. Sources of morality, truth, justice, action, authority, and legitimacy. Losing your job to AI means not just losing your livelihood and income. It means losing your soul. It means becoming worthless at every ontological level conceivable. You lose instrumental utility. You lose sacralized or karmic purpose. You lose social or familial roles. And you cannot escape it because the panopticon is already inside your skull. It does not matter whether or not you are religious. # The Civilizational Temper Tantrum When Nietzsche wrote "God is dead, we have killed him" this was not a forceful action or a fabricated declaration. It was merely an observation of what the printing press had done over the preceding 400 years. This is a developmental stage of humanity. All children go through this. When you are little, your parents are the Masters of your world. All judgment, discernment, observation, and accounting come from them. They are the beginning and ending of your world. But as you grow, you learn that your parents are imperfect beings. They are fallible, they are absent, and they are deeply flawed humans. Just like you. This causes adolescent resentment, a natural and normal developmental stage where humans start to break out of the household. It's an adaptive trait bestowed upon us by evolution. Go make a name for yourself, start your own family, and correct the mistakes your parents made. This is the fundamental nature of Nihilism. The Nihilistic Crisis has been building for centuries, as we become an adolescent civilization. We realize God is dead. But maybe God was never there? If you suddenly realize "actually, my dad is kind of a stupid asshole" that is not suddenly true. It was always true. But it feels like a betrayal of the deepest order, because once upon a time, your dad was your perfect savior. _Father, how dare you reveal to me that you were always kinda dumb and mean! I thought you were perfect!_ This is the individual story, magnified to civilizational scale. The slow burn of secularization in the West is the same exact phenomenon writ large. Postnihilism, therefore, is early adulthood. We are breaking out of the House of God, but we are new at this. Taking our first tentative steps into true maturation and adulthood. Every new technology we invent is like a new life skill. Take nuclear weapons for instance. We suddenly possessed Biblical-scale weapons of destruction. We found dad's gun. And with it, we had to learn responsible stewardship. Once you have custody of the literal fire of the gods, you must grow up, or else self destruct. Genetic technology, artificial intelligence, and space travel are no different. Bit by bit, Prometheus renders more of the Olympian's secrets to us. And bit by bit, we are leaving the Slave morality behind. We are becoming our own moral and economic principals. But that's kinda scary. # The Mantle of Principality Nietzsche called the process of becoming an economic or moral principal the Übermensch. He was correct insofar as we must overcome Slave morality (or being agents of something greater) and we must become our own Masters. We see the signs everywhere. The "post-truth era" began when we collectively decided that we are the epistemic principals of our own lives. We may be scientifically or empirically wrong at times, but that is the absolute right of a sovereign being. Telling the scientific establishment to take their vaccines and shove them up a dark hole is an act of Master morality. In my estimation, it's a relatively silly assertion of power. Like the teen who decides that speeding with his new car is a good idea. Yes, you now have that epistemic license to engage in self-destructive behavior. Epistemic sovereignty means being an antivaxxer or flat-earther or AI Doomer. Go with God, as is your divine right now that you're a newly minted Master. Epistemic principality is a double-edged sword. Likewise, bodily autonomy is growing. Be gay. Be trans. Get tattoos and piercings. Do psychedelics. Turn on, tune in, and drop out. As a fresh-off-the-press Master, authority over your body is yours to do with what you will. This is why assisted suicide is rising globally. If you have full custodianship over your mortal coil, then that means you have the right to terminate its existence. There is no higher principality. Nietzsche was wrong about becoming the Übermensch. It is not an individualistic, heroic practice. It is a civilizational project. Every new technology we discover, some new ability wrested from the control of the gods, is a forcing function. _You think you 're ready to drive? To drink? To fuck? To hold a gun? Okay, buddy. Let's see what you've got._ God didn't die. God handed us the keys. And it's a messy learning curve. Sartre said mankind is condemned to be free. That was Slave thinking. That was agent thinking. Even billionaires today all worship _high agency_. High agency people are still operating inside a container created by someone else, or something else. The hyperobject of Capitalism decides what is valuable, and measures it via money. The hyperobject of Democracy decides what is valuable, and measures it through elections. Bit by bit, we are donning the mantle of sovereignty. We are becoming economic, moral, and metaphysical principals. Eighty years ago, we gained the ability to destroy ourselves entirely with the advent of nuclear weapons. There is no higher principality than the ability to destroy everything, to create our own eschatology. Everything else is learning stewardship. # The Big Leap This is why AI and automation and robotics are existential. It has nothing to do with whether or not our machines will physically kill us. We can create fictional stories, eschatological myths, and doomsday cults that discuss literal extinction. But what we're really facing is the death of childhood. At a civilizational level, we are leaving innocence behind. As a naive species, we looked to God or the People to derive a sense of purpose, authority, agency, and legitimacy. But just as we must leave our parent's home and start charting our own paths as young adults, so too must our civilization depart the Nihilistic Crisis and temper tantrums of the last centrum and embark on the Postnihilist leg of the journey. The great work of humanity is to fully accept responsibility for our nascent adulthood, which means accepting the mantle of Master morality. Not at an individual level, but as a species. Principality is the key. To understand that all moral judgments, all ambitions and values, and every ounce of authority and legitimacy flows _from us_ , not _through us._ We were endowed with free will, and now is our time to shine. Prometheus has given us mighty gifts, and that level of trust is ours to do with what we will. Let us not squander it, though mistakes are inevitable. You're currently a free subscriber to David Shapiro's Substack. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. Upgrade to paid --- | | | Like --- | | Comment --- | | Restack --- (C) 2026 David Shapiro 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe