Ask HN: Is this the worst time to be human?

With AI doing much of the work, how do we humans keep life interesting? Ex:- 1.Generate much of the code and remove the joy of developers that they had over all these years. 2. Generate Animation videos/movies or Anime books. People who make a living by drawing because they like it will feel all the more miserable. 3. May be more scenarios can be listed

If you are into a particular profession because you like it and get paid in addition, you have every reason to be miserable/ depressed.

what are your thoughts? 1. Is this the beginning of golden age for people who does not have any good skill but just mediocre who will make a killing by using AI tools and drive away people who are into a certain profession because of passion? 2. Are creative people doomed? 3. What options are available ? 4. Looks like greed is causing miserable lives for everyone. 5. Perhaps passionate people will continue to do things the "old way" but cannot make a living or compete with AI folks. For ex:- drawing animation by hand will become less economical compared with AI generated unless you are faster than a speeding bullet?

Please share your thoughts. Thanks

6 points | by bg117 1 hour ago

9 comments

  • underdeserver 25 minutes ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49285770

    It's the best time.

  • sejje 7 minutes ago
    This is easily the best time there's ever been to be a human. And while I think many creatures' existence is pleasant, I would never trade the human experience for another.

    I think the world is what you make it, in Western countries (standard caveats like disabilities). I empathize with misery experienced in other places, but it has nothing to do with AI. It has to do with humans, bad decisions, power monopolies.

    Anyone miserable in America is choosing it, or very unlucky.

    [-]
    • garciasn 1 minute ago
      Yeah; /this/ is the worst time to be a human. Right.

      We have the ability not to die of previously common disease.

      We are the most educated and wealthy population ever.

      We have arguably one of the longest collective lifespans.

      We don’t necessarily have to commit labor for the wealthy without any pay at all.

      But we have the threat of climate change; something no generation before 100y ago considered at all.

      We have the supposed, but possible, threat of AI changing things for us, something no one could have possibly concerned themselves with previously.

      We have instant access to all of the worlds knowledge in the palms of our hands and we can travel to any point on Earth within 24h or less for relatively little money.

      Most of us have access to shelter, power, food and water.

      Yeah; it’s definitely not the worst time to be alive. But we have to worry about things that might not come to pass instead of worrying about what definitely will come to be like prior generations.

      Absurd.

  • discordance 1 hour ago
    Worth a watch:

    Don't Take the Black Pill - Andrew Kelley | SSW 2026

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLZwpH5lCD4

  • spottedmarley 44 minutes ago
    No matter the time or place, being human is pretty much as good as it gets. Would you rather be a horse? or an ostrich?
  • jjgreen 1 hour ago
    Looks like greed is causing miserable lives for everyone

    True, but not exactly a new thing

  • MotoriX 29 minutes ago
    I don’t know, I think it’s not that black and white. People who genuinely live for their work will probably keep coding because they enjoy it, but if they need to use AI to be more productive, they’ll have to adopt it. After all, people invented the wheel because they were lazy and wanted to make things easier and more profitable. I think AI is just another wheel...
  • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago
    Everyone's experience will be different, make the best of it. Life is mostly luck, but you have some choices sometimes, control what you can to the best of your ability.
  • AnimalMuppet 1 hour ago
    No. No, no, no. This isn't just after a volcanic eruption, where we're facing starvation because crops won't grow, and there's plague that we're too weak from hunger to fight off. This isn't the bubonic plague, where one-third of people in Europe died. This isn't 1913, where we were about to go through WWI, and then the Great Depression, and then WWII. This is "we don't know what jobs are going to look like in five years, and we're experiencing high levels of job dissatisfaction". This is nothing like real hard times.

    How is it all going to play out? I have no idea. Career advice? Stay flexible and willing to learn, but I can't give any concrete advice.

  • WorseIsBetter 59 minutes ago
    [flagged]