'Human premium': by 2040, human haircuts could be a luxury status flex
flowersslop · x · 2026-10-22
flowersslop argues 'there is no job AI can't replace' is false: wherever people specifically want human interaction, AI can't substitute. By 2040 they foresee a 'human premium' market — restaurants with all-human waiters, human massages, human haircuts — where the selling point is that a human did it, not the quality. - A new status flex: affording a human haircut instead of a robot's. - Demand will be tiny and prices high; few will care who cuts their hair, and few will want the job. - Not just for the rich: ordinary people might occasionally spend part of their UBI on human services as a treat, like a steakhouse today. - Inherently AI-proof by design.
More from AGI Musings
- Top AI forecasters including Shulman and Kokotajlo all expect beyond-human AI by 2028-2029 — ben_j_todd · 2026-10-22
- Ben Todd: the most prescient AI forecasters all expect beyond-human AI by 2028-2029 — ben_j_todd · 2026-10-22
- Meta CTO Bosworth: superintelligence by 2028 will dwarf everything since ChatGPT — DeryaTR_ · 2026-10-22
- Matt Turck: in AI, everyone is competing with everyone — chips, models, clouds and apps all overlap — mattturck · 2026-10-22
- A 1979 IBM slide — "a computer must never make a management decision" — resonates in the agent era — ExcitingImage9211 · 2026-10-22
- Anthropic researchers publish essay on technological progress and the meaning of work — paulnovosad · 2026-10-22