Re: I have a question:
Why do we use our technological prowess to automate away the pointless rituals we invented to busy ourselves, instead of doing away with the rituals, and use the compute powering our AIs to do something more productive?
Because, the point is, that the rituals must be performed. Indeed, any large organisation can be said to exist primarily to provide the funding and set the schene for the performance of the rituals.
The problem we have with people is that they can manifest things. Humans, left all on their own, they will manifest distracting, maybe dangerous, even terrible things. Like the Golden Jesus* running for President and then Righfully slaying all the Impure and Improper starting with the gays. So, a network of distractions is created, keeping the human mind busy with insignificant trivia and white noise so Bad Things does not happen too much.
This network of distractions we call "Real Life (tm)" or "A Career". It got damaged during Covid 19 and we lost containment somewhat, allowing lots of people too much freedom to manifest their inner nuttines - and set their creations lose on the world. This is obviously not good so ... everything will be wound back and tightened down harder, with better distractions and more elaborate rituals to perform. AI will be a critical part of that work.
I.O.W. We will have less free time, more distractions, and more performances in the future!
*) I just see a fat-ass fuckhead loser, but, the phenomen no different from the happenings in Project Blue Book, where a bunch of people see a flying saucer with 3 beings in it waving at them, while the radar sensors and the Air Force sees a rocket stage de-orbiting.