The Legend of John Henry is a tale that has always held my fascination. It is a folktale about a freed African American man in the 1800s who was known for his strength. He was a steel driver which meant he used a large sledge hammer to drive a chisel into rock to create tunnels in hills and mountains, often for railroads. When the steam power rock drill was invented, John Henry and his coworkers were threatened by its efficiency. In an effort to prove human labor was superior to mechanical ingenuity, John Henry challenged the drill in a race to dig a tunnel. John Henry won, but he drove his body so hard that he collapsed and died at the end of the race. Like all legends, it is hard to know its veracity. However, the moral of the story provides a warning for all of us as we advance in a technological age.
Technology is something that has been around since the cavemen. The first version of technology was the creation of tools to become more proficient in tasks for survival or to invent new tasks to aid in advancement. For millennia, technology centered around this basic concept, and it was celebrated and sought after because it aided human flourishing.
Then came the era of the production of mass amounts of goods. Started initially with the printing press, and perfected in the era of the industrial revolution, technology was now developed for not only the flourishing of all society, but also for the purpose of amassing wealth. Being able to create a vast number of goods at an exponential rate opened up a doorway to wealth that had previously been accessible to only the upper echelons of society. Now anyone with an idea and ingenuity could receive large amounts of income from the masses. This technology aided in human flourishing, but also created new opportunities for economic injustice. Human persons were needed to run machines, but they did not need much skill to run them. Thus, they could be paid lower wages compared to the amount of profit coming in from all the goods being produced, and they did not have to advance in skills. Rather, they became a cog in a money making machine.
Then came the internet age. Society that had been separated by geographical area was now brought together. Even more people were exposed to the exponential amount of goods that were available to purchase. Because of this, not only did essential goods receive more customers, but non essential goods did as well. The entertainment industry boomed. Prodigal spending rose as materialism rose to an all time peak in human history. Additionally, computer technology advanced to the point where fewer people were needed to run machines. Corporations could get away with paying their workers even less due to the little amounts of skilled workers that were necessary and the unlimited amount of profit available due to the connectivity of the internet. As a result, the first world has become an entertainment based society that is individualistic. With people placing their worth in how they occupy their free time and not in how they contribute to the common good, a rise in anxiety has helped create an increasingly volatile society. Additionally, economic injustice has continued to flourish with a select few exploiting the labor of the masses.
Now we look to Artificial Intelligence. Much has been said about it, and much more will be said. But possibly the biggest threat that AI poses to society, amongst others, is that it can eliminate the need for much if not most of the human population to do skilled work in society. While this seems attractive to many of us at face value, the reality is that humans are made in the image and likeness of God. We are made to create, work, and cultivate intelligently just as the Holy Trinity does in the economy of salvation. To eliminate the need for work for the majority of society, leaving them to pursue their own personal pleasures, is a recipe for depression and discontent. This is because we are unsatisfied unless we partake in work for the sake of the common good. This is not to say that leisure is bad. In fact, some may say that leisure is the basis of culture. Yet, completely abandoning work for the sake of pleasure rejects who we are meant to be.
So as we continue to navigate the murky waters of new technological advancements, we must remember that technology can be good. It can aid in human flourishing, and we should not have the pride or fear of a luddite. The tale of John Henry tells us how futile that can be. Even though he won the battle, the power drill was there to stay long after John Henry. But we should also take the warning of the folktale that if we allow technology to be paired with greed, the dignity of the human person as a son or daughter who works within the world with their Heavenly Father is at risk if we turn all labor over to artificial arms, legs, and intelligence. The world right now is headed down that path, and while there is no silver bullet to fix the issue it is one that we as a society will have to discern quickly if we want to avoid a further devolution of society.