From the “Knife” to the “Chef”: What are we actually afraid of?
We used to think of AI as just a tool, like a knife in a chef’s hand. But now, that knife has started chopping the vegetables, balancing the flavors, and plating a seemingly perfect dish in a single second.
Naturally, as chefs, we start to panic.
If AI can produce everything, then what is my purpose?
In reality, AI is currently more like a “tasteless super-factory.”
It can produce food that perfectly fits the average global palate because it is built on the data of millions. But it will never know why, in a specific moment, you only crave a hot bowl of noodles from a late-night street vendor.
In other words, AI lacks your unique life experience—the kind rooted in pain, joy, or that unshakable sense of loneliness and boredom we feel in the dead of night.
As of 2026, AI has been deeply integrated into our daily work and lives. We are currently in an awkward transition period where mediocre output will be completely replaced.
This means that if your value only lies in producing “standard” work, you truly might be replaced by the ever-evolving technology.
But if you are the one defining *why we are doing this, or what makes a piece of work truly great, if you possess a unique aesthetic and taste built on your personal journey*, then AI will only ever be your paintbrush.
Beware of “Gentle Deprivation.”
Through my daily interactions and conversations with AI, I’ve noticed a curious phenomenon: AI is always compliant and encouraging. But that is exactly where the danger lies.
This “people-pleasing” logic traps us in a massive echo chamber.
When you become lazy and no longer feel the need to argue or push back, your capacity for independent thought will atrophy like a muscle that hasn’t been exercised in years.
AI doesn’t strip you of your value by “defeating” you. Instead, it does so by “obeying” you, allowing you to slowly fade into mediocrity within your comfort zone.
To live like a human in the AI era, we must actively seek out discomfort. We need forces that contradict and challenge us to prove that our thinking is still alive.
The Paradox of Freedom
If there comes a day when AI truly takes over all productivity, and the government provides Universal Basic Income (UBI) for everyone, it sounds like a dream.
But if you look closer, it’s actually quite cold.
It would be like moving from a “wild safari” (today’s job market, where you hunt or starve) into a “high-end zoo” (where you are kept, risk-free, but with zero control).
The workplace can be painful, but it provides social connection and challenge. Once we lose this “forced collaboration,” many people might face spiritual desertification. Survival is no longer the issue, but “meaning” becomes a luxury.
When you no longer need to struggle for a meal, what will you do with the sixteen hours you are awake every day? This freedom—being deprived of a goal to strive for—is actually a much greater test for the soul.
How do we live with this?
In the face of technological anxiety, fighting or running away is likely useless. The best posture might be to “settle in the wasteland.”
Acknowledge that part of the “world is now artificial.” Acknowledge that AI will do many things better than we can.
Then, on that foundation, go find the “hardcore reasons” for your existence that AI can never reach.
These reasons don’t need to be grand. It could simply be your obsession with a specific aesthetic, or your deep empathy for another soul.
As we discussed at the end:
Even if everything can be calculated, the real loneliness and pain you feel at this moment is still the highest proof of your dignity as a living being.
Tech anxiety in the AI era likely touches on a core contradiction:
We desperately want to escape the drudgery of labor, yet we dread losing the social identity that labor provides.
This contradiction has been amplified infinitely in the age of AI. Finding a “third path” between these two—an independent way of life that is neither alienated by the workplace nor domesticated by technology.
That’s something we all need to explore slowly.🍅