[aabajian]

AI is making us face the reality of non-physical goods and services. If a product exists solely as data (writing, music, code, drawings, movies, etc.) then the value is in the idea and its distribution, and less on its production.

I'll give some examples:

Novel algorithms: PageRank, BitTorrent, Like buttons, disappearing pictures, etc.

Artistic styles: Cubism, impressionism, Wes Anderson, etc.

The above algorithms are (relatively) straightforward to implement and could be implemented by Claude Code in a matter of hours if not minutes. But, you'd still need a means to distribute them.

Similarly, you can have AI generate an image in any of the above styles (or a combination thereof), but the image won't have intrinsic value unless you can finds a means of (profitable) distribution.

Put another way, there's limited value in being able to master physical tasks (playing piano, typing fast), but fundamental skills that lead to creative innovation will remain important...along with being able to package/market/distribute the AI-implementation of your ideas.

[card_zero]

You could imagine beings who live on an abstract plane, creatively playing around with abstract thoughts and producing abstract goods. Except you couldn't imagine it in any detail, because it has no details, because its abstract. It's easier to imagine that they live in a virtual world, and play creatively with virtual objects in the course of producing virtual goods that owe a lot to real physical goods. But that's tantamount to learning physical skills. Besides, for the time being, the world we inhabit is an amalgam of the virtual with the physical (not to mention the abstract). I'm saying that if you lock yourself in a box and think abstract thoughts you won't innovate much. It worked for Descartes with his oven, but that's unusual. Usually we need to play with a somewhat physical environment that's friendly to our physical monkey-shaped bodies and senses, in order to be creative, so physical skills aren't going away in the foreseeable.