the grimness comes from needing to make rent, to pay the bills and cover medical expenses. Sure in the big picture of society it's something to be excited for, to see the future, but signing up for food stamps because I'm today's buggy whip manufacturer that got put out of a job isn't an envigorating way to feed myself.
where's the hope in that? especially because it could be taken away at any time.
> Young people usually adapt to life's changes better than old people.
In terms of careers, children have years where they are expected to be unproductive and old people are no longer expected to be productive.
The ones hit hard are those who need to start from the bottom again learning a different skillset, and many have gambled putting off drawing an income for years for what they thought was a moat that AI is chewing through rapidly.
The future contains AIs like SORA and Gemini 1.5. Gripe about it if you want - but that won't change anything. So why be grim about it? There are so many opportunities to use these new tools to make new things that have never existed before. Obviously there's a danger society itself crumbles, but if not - well, what an exciting transition to live through.
I look forward to being an old man and getting to tell the stories of what life was like when movies and software were made entirely by hand. What fun.