For the past several hundred years, modern identity has mainly been built on three pillars:
- Ability: what I can do (profession, skills, achievements)
- Possession: what I have (wealth, status, resources)
- Relationship: who I belong to (family, community, nation)
Now, AI is systematically eroding the first pillar. And this pillar is precisely the core narrative of modern individualism—realizing oneself through effort and ability.
“Jobs will be replaced” is only the surface issue. The real crisis is: when AI can do almost every outward-facing task better than you, what do you use to define the value of your own existence?
At that point, the urgency of “looking inward” increases and becomes a required course. When external reference systems fail, you have to build an internal one.
Either you take the initiative to do it now. Or at some point in the future, when you’ve been forced into a corner, you do it passively.