First,

Who are the Lumpenproletariat?

If you tried finding the synonyms of this word, which I first read here, you might find several of the following.

  • The great unwashed
  • the hoipoloi
  • the rabble
  • the rank and file
  • the lower classes
  • the rank and file

The list goes on, but the best way to understand a term is to check its origins, both historical and semantic.

Historically, this term was first used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 1840s. They had used this term to refer to the “unthinking lower strata” that don’t even possess the capability to revolt.
Semantically, it seems to have risen from the marriage of the German word “lumpen” which means ragged (or in English – misshapen and ill-formed,) and “proletariat” which translates to middle-class.

So, the lumpenproletariat is the lower strata of the proletariat made of the “social scum.” They are the unemployables, or the “permanent underclass.”

What’s the Connection between AI and the Lumpenproletariat?

Next, why are we talking about them?

There’s a growing concern and a “sincere fear” that:

 In an A.I.-dominated future, those with capital will buy “compute” (the tech term for A.I. horsepower) and use it to accomplish work once done by humans: anything from coding software to designing marketing campaigns to managing factories … … … The only way to escape the permanent A.I. underclass, ironically, is to lean in and hustle in a bot-like way.

The article that inspired this post then explains that there’s a growing sense of urgency among people to “ship AI slop asap” so that they don’t get left behind.

While I don’t much like the term lumpenproletariat, I agree with the article’s take on the sense of urgency among people. Use AI or be damned seems to be the corporate theme these days.

But will we see the rise of the out-of-work lumpenproletariat? Worse still, who are these prospective lumpenproletariat? If we stop mincing words, aren’t they talking about us and our kids?

I am not sure of the answers. There are too many perspectives, and while we all feel the unpredictability of AI’s impact gnawing at the back of our minds, we don’t know what exactly will happen.

How is AI Changing our Interactions and Environment?

However, I am seeing several symptoms emerge at a rather alarming rate. The following are just a few of them.

  1. People are using AI to write. Everything. Their social media posts, their emails, their DMs, you name it, and they are using AI to write it all. Kids are using it to do their homework, adults are using it to complete their office work. Some are even using AI-assistance to find love. People are making SM posts that are being liked, shared, and commented upon by like-minded people. Effectively, we are seeing an intellectual zombie apocalypse, except that instead of zombies lumbering about, we now have similar-looking/sounding/feeling content clogging out SM feed. Will these posts keep us relevant in an AI-dominated future? I don’t think they will, but we’ll see.
  2. AI is being discussed more than other technologies of the past. About 70% of the posts I see in my feed are about AI (and most are written by AI, too). Of the remaining 30% nearly half are written by AI. About half the posts say stuff like,
    • “AI is great! Only if you don’t use it correctly, your brain will rot.”
    • “I am feeling more creative since I’ve started using AI.”
    • “AI helped me do this, that, and whatnot.”
  3. A few are making half-baked posts with graphs that don’t make complete sense, and when asked to explain their process, they fumble and grumble, and then disappear.
  4. AI companies are sharing news about the new capabilities of their AIs every month or so, and people are going nuts about the novelty they present with each update (This writer included).
  5. Experts of different kinds are making predictions and projections. Terms like UBI (Universal Basic Income) are being tossed about – the idea being that there will come a time when AI will be a better worker than a human, and so to keep the processes more efficient, humans will be given a universal basic income, to stay home and do nothing (except be creative)! (Instructional designers, make note of this – BL5/6 will continue to exist – we’ll only fly past the lower BLs.)
  6. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, approximately 83 million jobs globally are expected to be eliminated by 2027. Some new jobs may appear, but if we can’t even define those jobs yet, how are we going to retrain and reskill people in the next two years? (I will talk more about what I’ve gleaned from this report in a different post.)
The modern lumpenproletariat - or the permanent underclass - pushed down and under by the cycle of power and money fueled by AI.

What Questions are We Asking about the Impact of AI?

So, what’s going to happen?

Will a huge percentage of the global middle class become the “lumpenproletariat” or, as Marx put it, “the social scum”?

Let’s look at it this way.

Is AI taking jobs already?

Yes, it’s already better at certain jobs, and some people have lost their jobs due to AI.

Will AI take more jobs in the future?

Yes, it appears so. Even though, as the experts would say, LLMs can’t do “original” thinking and so their growth shall be stalled at some point, I believe most of our entry level jobs don’t require original thought, and AI would be a better and cheaper employee to have for such jobs. The AI-advocate in you will say, “But hey, only the entry level jobs – right? Other jobs require creativity – and only humans have it.” Think again. Creative thought requires highly developed schemas and a mastery of a particular creative expression. As we go on offloading our writing and thinking to AI, our brains will become dumber – and creative thought will soon bid us farewell.

Which jobs will AI take?

I think it’s useless to predict which ones. People are trying to do stuff by hand, learn carpentry, plumbing, and other such psychomotor skills. The assumption being, AI won’t be able to do these. I don’t feel so sure. If an AI-powered robotic arm can sculpt the hat of Leonardo Da Vinci with such finesse today, in about five years, the synergy between AI and robots could ensure that the duo does almost all the jobs that we do; especially, if our brains have already turned rusty and we can’t even plan a revolution to get our world back. Sounds far-fetched? Good. Enjoy your comfortable cocoon.

The possibility we are ignoring or at least refusing to consider is that if we don’t take our world back now for our future generations, we won’t ever get it back. Most of us aren’t pushing back. Not even a little. We are letting ourselves become pawns in the game played by corporate greed – but honestly, what’s the option?

  • Food must be put on the table.
  • The kid’s school/college fees must be paid.
  • The EMIs must be paid.
  • A pension fund must be built.

Here’s the wheel we hamsters are caught in, and that’s what they are banking on.

Money must be earned, and to earn money, we must have a job. To keep that job, we must work faster, because we are all playing “fastest finger first.” So, we must use AI, just as we must breathe the poisonous air of our cities to stay alive. We’ve got to use AI, even though it could rust our brains, because the only ones who can stop this perpetual motion machine are the builders of the machine, and you and I both know that they won’t.

What can we do to stay smart in spite of AI?

  • First, understand that when we use AI for writing every little word, we aren’t winning; AI and its creators are!
  • Second, we must use AI selectively. I use RAD. It’s a framework that lets me put all my congnitive tasks into three baskets – and so, I let AI do only certain tasks – not all and never always!

Note: Sometimes you write not because you want to be read, but because if you don’t, you’ll burst. I wrote this post for precisely the same reason. A select few, I know, are already seeing what I am, and who are close to bursting themselves. But they know, as I do, that there’s little that can be done. This post, I think, is still not quite there. There’s more to be said and seen, and if you are one of those few saying it, leave a note and your link here. I’d love to read your thoughts.

Credits: “The Lumpenproletariat” Courtesy: Gemini.