Everyone is afraid of what the future means for their job.
Especially people on LinkedIn.
Especially you.
(That’s why you’re reading this)
That’s why I wrote this.
Not necessarily as a prediction tool, but as a starting point.
We have an opportunity today to choose the work we want to do that will create the world we want tomorrow.
And we that means choosing whether that world is a utopian heaven or the scorched earth of hell.
And if you’re like me, you’re likely considering the morality of your work in the face of climate change, genocide, and fascism.
You’re wondering what it means for the future of humanity.
You’re wondering about what role will be spiritually fulfilling.
But also what it means for the future of you financially.
It’s a job, not a hobby.
Introducing “The Jobs Of The Future” Matrix
In the Virtual-Benevolent quadrant, Angels will patrol the etherial cyberspace of the future. They’ll be few and far between, and will play a role in helping us navigate the possibilities of a virtual world.
Reality Verifier
We’re staring down the barrel of a misinformation gun that threatens to destroy everything positive that humanity has built. The ability (a combination of skills, interest, and technology) to correctly identify what’s real and what has been faked will be valued and valuable.
AI Relationship Coach
It’s too late for society to turn back from AI relationships. We’ve already seen how gripping they can be, and the next generation and the generation after that are going to tighten that grip on isolated and lonely people. If people find meaning and companionship in those relationships, it might be a good thing. But they’ll need help steering through the obstacles of acceptance and prompting, in the same way even person-to-person relations need counseling and therapy now and then.
Companion
\When we’re already suffering from a dead internet populated by moronic bots, and when there are plans to create entire bot-only networks, or networks where the user is the singular real person, the demand for real, actual relationships will increase dramatically. This might look like friendship, romance, or sex work. But it will be human and real.
Writer
Writing is more magic than technology, and developing the written word is probably mankind’s greatest achievement. The power to put something down on paper (or screen), and to have someone read it later that day, or years later, and experience it at a hallucinatory level will never be matched.
Movies and photography aren’t the same and are acts of observation, rather than empathy. Some sort of direct brain-link might achieve the same result but only with an extremely elevated level of technology.
Real writing isn’t going away, and it might be the only thread we’ll have to hang on to when we want to emerge from the slop labyrinth.
Reality Falsifier
When the most valuable currency is data, the ability to control, shift and shape that currency will be profitable. Those who wield an ability to blend artificial reality with storytelling and a sense of the current geopolitical and cultural moment will be able to shift perception and markets to their immediate benefit.
In the Virtual-Exploitive quadrant, Demons will haunt our shared digital spaces and are eager to turn them into a virtual hell, serving only their needs.
Token Broker
When the entire house of crypto cards collapses, we’ll realize the the real virtual currency is the power of compute. And we’re seeing this already: the service on the biggest platforms and tools isn’t bought and measured by monthly fees or gigabytes. It’s tokens. And where tokens become currency across platforms, there comes the opportunity for arbitrage, resale and loaning.
Cyber Screw
A realistic metaverse powered by generative AI and haptics is months, if not short years off. And with that comes the the ability to make our wildest dreams come true. But it also comes with it the possibility of virtual punishment: indescribable pain, without lasting physical effects. Multiple virtual lifetimes of sentencing, taking place within minutes.
And there will be those who raise their hands and leap out of their seats at the opportunity to create, conduct, and monitor these new punishments. We’re already seeing people eager to sign up for questionable enforcement roles. Being the warden for a virtual prison offers all of the upsides for these people with none of the downsides.
Slopper
We have no idea how fast-moving and horrifying the dogshit slop tsunami that’s about to hit us will be, and it will be given momentum by those profiting off it. A distant cousin to the Reality Falsifier, the Slopper will find a career and a paycheck in maximizing the velocity of nonsense they’re able to funnel out of enterprise-grade plagiarism machines.
Human NPC
Generative AI will make for enriching, immersive experiences. But even with the highest-fidelity models we’ll still know that we’re only playing against an easily replicable model. Game and entertainment developers eager for something even more immersive will want their worlds populated by flesh and blood behind the screen. Taking a few hours a week to play as a taxi driver in a simulated city of the future so that others can fight virtual terrorists against each other won’t pay well, but might pay enough for enough game and computer time for yourself.
Climate Technician
Corporate and political interests aren’t currently aligned with the future of the Earth, but I believe increasingly catastrophic climate change will force them to be very soon. When that happens there will be a demand for engineers, experts, and in-the-field muscle to stall and reverse the impact of industrial man on our world.
In a brighter future we’ll salute these people on their way to work, pay them richly, and remember them as heroes.
In the Real-Benevolent quadrant, we will find futuristic Saints who will walk among us here on our Earthly plane, trying to make the world a better place.
Artisan
As our closets fill with the same plastic junk everyone else has, we’ll increasingly look towards the bespoke and handcrafted. The role of artisanal goods, from handknit sweaters to handcarved cutlery will drive a return to apprenticeships. Those who are skilled with their hands and can create will find a growing audience and customer base for their finite output.
Artist
We value things based on the perceived effort it takes to create them. And as AI slop takes even less brainpower to create more brainrot, we’ll place greater emphasis on real human art. I predict a return to live theatre, watercolour and acrylic painting, pottery, and acoustic music as a rejection of today’s plagiarism machines.
Real art, with its wobbly bits and smudges, will remind us who we are.
Caregiver
Western society is aging, families live further apart than before, and the robotic revolution is still a decade away. The demand for in-person care, both for medical assistance and general companionship will continue to grow. Caring, compassionate people will find work and fulfillment in the role of providing support for an aging and isolated world.
PS: Call your mother.
Repairer
Our reaction to the rising cost of goods and rapid decay engineered into nearly everything we own means that we’ll start to extend the useful life of our tools, machines, and clothing. The ability to fix and tune and mend will be increasingly in demand.
In the Real-Exploitive quadrant Sinners will have not yet exchanged their flesh for full virtual immersion, and will remain in meatspace to extract value for shareholders and soul from humanity.
AI Cover Band
A part of humanity’s soul dies when we stop producing art and music, and Generative AI music is the beginning of the end. There will still be demand for live, in-person performances. But the algorithmically boosted online popularity of AI music will mean a demand for session musicians able to fill-in for live events. Artificial music played by a real band.
The short-term benefits of paying gigs will be outweighed by the long-term loss of a vitally important part of creation and creativity.
Enforcer
The concept of what constitutes a crime has slid into moral quicksand. Right and wrong are different from justified, and in the grim darkness of the future we’ll see an increased demand to enforce rules, arbitrary and real, by whoever will pay. We’re seeing this today, and we’ll see more of it tomorrow. People enjoy enforcing imposed rules on others, and enjoy it even more when they get paid to do it. Loyalty to in-group or ethics has no place when there is money involved.
Dropshipper
The dropshipper exists solely for the sake of extracting money for themselves by increasing the velocity at which we purchase. They have no belief in the brands and products they hustle, and no loyalty to customer needs beyond lines in increasingly abstracted and automated buying and selling systems. They’re strip miners, not passionate founders with a vision to to offer. It’s a multibillion dollar resource allocation market.
Fossil Fuel Marketer
The marketing industry has mostly turned its back on guns and cigarettes, having decided that these are net bad (for the agency, but also society). And a lot of agency and agency folk have done the same with fossil fuels. But some haven’t. And as long as the industry exists, it will support a parasitic lobby industry designed to increase our excitement about the slow poisoning of Earth. Jobs will exist in this space. They’ll be lucrative.
There’s an old saying that science fiction is descriptive, not predictive. It does a better job of explaining where we are today than it does the future.
The same goes for trends and forecasting decks: They’re a better tool for understanding what we’re collectively doing and thinking now and today than tomorrow and the future.
This artefact is no different.
If you see something in this deck makes you feel seen, heard, or optimistic: Great.
Hopefully that means that you’re keen to build a future that feels more like heaven for everyone, rather than heaven for some and hell for others. Or hell for everyone.
If you disagree with something in here: Good.
This whole thing should feel slightly disagreeable. So does the future we’re building for ourselves if we’re not careful.
The battle for what’s next has already begun.
This was created by me, Parker Mason. I’m not great at writing, but I enjoy it. And I enjoy making things like this.
You can find more of my stuff at ParkerMason.net or BlogCampaigning.com
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