Shortly after the first Matrix movie came out in 1999 I had an idea for a sci-fi story that was totally derivative.
It went like this:
In the near future, computers are orders of magnitude more powerful than they are today. Unfortunately (or not) they have still not attained the fuzzy and moist intelligence of your average human. Because of this, certain calculations are best done by raw human wetware. Companies or governments with hairy math problems that needed these calculations would hire you to plug your brain into a Matrixy computer. For five years you’d be unconscious, there would be no “virtual life”, but you’d be paid as if you’d worked 20 years.
Several years later I realized that people already do exactly this for much less money. Maybe my unconscious mind was telling me not to take that cushy cubicle job.
I’m convinced that most people only spend 1-2 hours a day actually working. Of that time spent, a lot of it is “meta work”, endless emails, scheduling, and such. When you go to work and sit in your cube you’re behaving pretty much like a CPU. Most of the time you’re at 99% idle, but you need to be there and “on” just in case someone needs some processing done.
For more good reasons not to work for the man, check out Steve Pavlina’s 10 reasons you should never get a job.
One Comment
Great points. I work for a great company, but my job almost defines what you said about being 99% idle most of the time with sudden on demand need for output. I love the moments I get to work on a problem, but the rest of the time I feel like I exist to keep my seat warm.
Luckily I’ll be going back to school.