Aristotle <3 AI
Re-discovering Aristotelian leisure in an AI future
Welcome to Wesley’s Substack, where I find an interesting idea and then write a post as if I have an opinion and/or know anything about anything. Do not assume that the words I write in these posts (1) reflect my actual opinions, (2) are original in anything other than particular wording, or (3) are true. In fact, safer to assume the opposite until proven otherwise.
This is weekly post #6 in accordance with my Substack New Years Resolution™. It is wildly late, and I will be punished accordingly. The goal will still require that I hit 50 posts in 2025.
As my philosophy professor once put it, “philosophers would be such assholes about modern technology.” If you took Socrates and showed him a skyscraper, or the internet, or a literal spacecraft, he wouldn’t be nearly excited enough. “That’s cool, but is all this technology making us better people? Have we learned more about metaphysics?”
Well not really, but he doesn’t have to be an asshole about it.
Unlike most philosophers, though, I think Aristotle would be absolutely juiced to see the modern world. He was as much a scientist as a philosopher - it was just all ‘natural philosophy’ back then. If we showed him a lighter, he’d absolutely lose his mind.
He’d probably have some catching up to do to understand AI (as if any of us understand it anyway). But he’d love more than just the tech. I think AI provides a unique sociological ‘reset’ that could let us re-discover Aristotelian Leisure.
AKA: Aristotle <3 AI
Last post, I discussed how AI poses a threat to our most fundamental human activity: thoughtful creation. We’re in danger of becoming ‘lions in a zoo’ - outsourcing the difficult activities which give life texture and enable flourishing.
But there’s a second, more hopeful, scenario. If we learn to truly ‘hunt for sport,’ our creative pursuits might find a new spark, simply by the fact that AI exists. AI could solve a fundamental problem of modern capitalism, simply by making our creative pursuits useless. Let’s break it down.
As Oliver Burkeman (#goat) points outs, the structure of capitalism and ‘productivity culture’ has instrumentalized every facet of our lives — every activity we do is for some other, future goal in mind. To do something for its own sake seems almost wasteful or negligent. Capitalism turns hobbies into ‘side-hustles,’ social interactions into ‘networking,’ time itself into a resource to be maximized and strategically allocated.
It’s difficult to maintain a truly ‘useless,’ fun hobby. Even as I personally have tried to fight this, there’s always a dangerous whisper of potential, of turning fun into something more. What if an intellectual rabbit-hole has an entrepreneurial idea at the bottom? What if this strange book I’m writing for fun is publishable? What if this Substack I’m writing for myself somehow goes viral? (#like-and-subscribe)
Oliver Burkeman has a great passage about this in Four Thousand Weeks:
“In an age of instrumentalization, the hobbyist is a subversive: he insists that some things are worth doing for themselves alone, despite offering no payoffs in terms of productivity or profit. The derision we heap upon the avid stamp collector or train spotter might really be a kind of defense mechanism, to spare us from confronting the possibility that they’re truly happy in a way that the rest of us—pursuing our [instrumental] lives, ceaselessly in search of future fulfillment—are not.”
This sociological turn would absolutely infuriate Aristotle. In Aristotle’s mind, the highest form of human flourishing comes when we pursue useless activities, when we engage in thoughtfulness for no external purpose. He believes we achieve deep happiness (#Eudaimonia) through his version of leisure.
Notably, this definition of leisure is different than how we might think of it. Aristotelian ‘leisure’ is still effortful – it is an engaging pursuit of something that is good in itself. It is not mindlessly scrolling on our phones or chasing the hottest trends. In Aristotle’s mind, most of us in the modern world alternate between work and ‘distraction,’ rather than true, engaging leisure.
The most infuriating part is that we are, as a society, wealthier than ever. Aristotle believed the entire point of wealth was to enable leisure: Work —> enough for survival —> time for leisure, the highest good. Instead, as we’ve become wealthier, we’re working more (kinda), and then we aren’t even using our free time on things that make us happy. Our equation goes something like: Work more —> enough to buy all the things we’ve convinced ourselves we need —> time that we spend distracting ourselves with said things.
In economic terms, the ‘substitution effect’ has trumped the ‘income effect:’ as people have become more economically productive, they feel more opportunity cost for non-work, so every non-work activity feels like it has to contribute to productivity. In a society with so much opportunity, we’re paralyzed by a pressure to capture it.
Greater prosperity hasn’t freed us, it has crippled us with the sheer ‘value’ of our time.
So how might AI solve this. Why might Aristotle <3 AI?
Well first it might make it worse. Because of how dramatically it will increase white-collar productivity and eliminate jobs, it might create a world even more divided between have-nots and can-produce-so-much-that-it-feels-wasteful-to-rest…s. That’s the exact problem of our modern world in Aristotle’s eyes – it leaves no room for leisure for anyone.
But maybe someday the framework of ‘hunting for sport’ will help us finally re-discover leisure. Maybe AI will free us from our self-made shackles by making our creative efforts obsolete.
If/when AI becomes powerful enough, any personal pursuit without it will become practically useless. Your night-time poetry writing will never compete with the infinite output of Thomas-level rhyme from PoetryGPT. Your video editing will never be as efficient as AutoCut.ai . If non-work pursuits have no hope of economic efficiency, they’re freed from the insidious whisper of instrumentalism.
If we hunt for sport and pursue creativity with no AI, we can create a clear division between productive activities and useless activities. Our side-hustles go back to hobbies and we can enjoy them for what they are, not what they might bring us. We may get to the point where anything done without AI is truly useless, almost Amish-esque, maybe even – if we’re lucky – embarrassing.
Future AI’s insane productivity frees us from even trying on our own. It gifts us the freedom and joy of uselessness. It offers a sociological re-set to re-discover Aristotelian leisure.
Aristotle <3 AI.