This isn’t much of a spoiler, but partway through this volume, there’s a scene where Nina wonders if she’d be able to accept it if a time came when the job of a maid became obsolete. She comes to the conclusion that she simply doesn’t know. But this struck me as a theme with enough depth that if I dug into it I could write whole volumes—plural—about it.
The truth is, my day job (for those who don’t know, I only write part-time) is related to illustration, 3D graphics, and design. Lately, the topic everyone’s talking about is how AI can create art. I’ve taken part in seminars at work and thought to myself about how to go forward in this new era.
AI has its own strengths and weaknesses, and in the end I reached the conclusion that at the moment, AI stealing human jobs isn’t a real problem. That being said, I was really shocked when I saw the illustrations and 3D models that the AI produced. I felt that maybe even our jobs would become obsolete.
Really talented people like Kinta, who does the illustrations for this series, probably don’t have anything to worry about (people like that probably have their own thoughts on what AI produces), but as someone without talent, after shock, the next thing I felt was threatened. I pray that society will develop so that people and technology can exist together in harmony.
In the story, Nina quickly forgets about her anxiety, but it could still resurface somewhere else down the line...
Looking back at humanity’s history, people have imagined that one day, the advance of technology will mean humans no longer have to work and we can all spend our time at leisure. When I was kid, I, too, thought that by the time I grew up machines would do all the work for us.
But here we are. Our world is more advanced than anything I imagined as a child. For one thing, I never thought smartphones would get so good. What’s more, my company has gone fully remote so I don’t even have to go into the office. And yet I’m still toiling away every day at my job with barely enough time to slurp down a pack down of cup noodles between meetings. Instant noodles and retort pouch foods have really stepped up their game lately, don’t you think? But I’m getting off topic.
In the end, even if technology can do all human jobs, I wonder if we won’t just go looking for work somewhere else then go on complaining about how busy we are. Is it because we don’t know how to relax? Or does it make us uneasy when we don’t have a job to do...?