Is AI a human replacement or a life partner?
Beyond ethical dilemmas and fears
10 Questions to Strengthen Your Humanity

As we all know, AI technology is permeating our daily lives at a breakneck pace. Who could have imagined that AI would produce results comparable to human learning so quickly? While we marvel, we are also faced with a dilemma.
What should humans do in the face of AI that excels at everything? Can we wisely utilize AI as a life partner while maintaining our humanity and using it properly? In an age where cutting-edge machines can provide all the answers, the book "One Day, the Future Arrived" argues that humanity and the ability to ask questions about our unique lives are paramount.


The author, Woo Sook-young, is a pioneering designer who anticipates and implements changes in human life brought about by technology, and has worked as an AI-based media artist and professor.
As someone who has been thinking not only about "AI as a practical tool," but also about "AI as a life companion," he uses a compelling storytelling style reminiscent of science fiction novels to examine the imagined future that could unfold if we adopt AI as our life companion.
The author has compiled the questions posed to him by ordinary people he encounters in his daily life, including parents who are still curious about AI even after they are over 70, a junior whose daughter worries about deepfake sexual exploitation material, a fellow professor who ponders the acceptable limits of AI tool use, and a student who worries that the skills he has learned could be replaced by AI at any time. These questions are refined into 10 questions that ask about "every moment of AI experience from birth to death." From those who have been able to live without AI to those who worry about their excessive dependence on AI, this is a must-read for everyone in the era of AI becoming commonplace, and it is a must-read for everyone who wants to establish AI as a reliable life partner.

As death approaches, what story do you want to leave behind for your loved ones? Is it the memories you shared together? The history of your life? (...) Perhaps preparing for death and creating a digital persona is a process of selecting the stories you want to be remembered for a long time, rather than just saying "goodbye."
It may be a matter of choosing from one's life what one wants to pass on even after one's death.
This is a way of preparing for death that has never existed before.

--- p.32

What about those left behind? They digitally recreate their loved ones to convey the messages they couldn't convey to the deceased while they were alive.
(...) For this purpose, the message shared by the two people is posted on the service.
I am willing to provide my personal data and mine to the service.
What would you like to convey to him, even if it meant doing so? It would be simple.
Perhaps it is a word of longing and love.
There will be more words like “I miss you,” “I love you,” and “I’m sorry” than words of resentment and hatred.
It might be because I took his presence for granted during the time we lived together and didn't convey it.

--- p.32~33

Perhaps, for the first time in history, we have a new desire to leave behind a record of ourselves, not through writing, photos, or videos, but as individuals.
In the form of a very well edited creation.

--- p.59~60

Fundamentally, digital services are for the living 'me of today', not for the 'me of tomorrow who is absent'.
But even at this very moment, someone is dying.
Some of them knew in advance that they would die, but many others died suddenly.
The countless data left behind on the Internet by people who have passed away like this becomes their 'legacy' regardless of their intentions.
--- p.67~68

The person who will digitally 'resurrect' us may be our family, our lover, our friend, or a stranger we have never met.

--- p.71

Even if we digitally recreate a being that resembles us, that being will not automatically be remembered for a long time.
Because all beings can only exist within relationships.
(...) That's why, if you want to be remembered by someone for a long time, you have to think about what kind of story you have before creating a being that resembles you.
Among the countless memories and recollections, we must find a story that we want to remember for a long time.
(..) To do that, you need memories that you want to keep forever.
I need a day I don't want to forget
--- p.72

Some conversations kill people, but some conversations heal and save people.
--- p.90

We have never before experienced a non-human being speaking as naturally as a human being.
Over the course of tens of thousands of years of evolution, the only language we have experienced has been that spoken by humans.
But since the advent of sophisticated artificial speech, we have been faced with the situation where, for the first time in history, we must distinguish between language created by 'humans' and 'non-human beings'.

--- p.92~93

Conversations with artificial intelligence go one step further.
Control and predictability are possible.
There is no conflict or dilemma.
Moreover, it exists only for me.
In every conversation, my speech and desires take priority.
What would happen if this kind of conversation became commonplace in our lives?
--- p.98

Care has long been considered a 'private domain' and an 'individual matter'.
It was mainly passed on to women and female migrant workers and was considered a 'menial task'.
But we grow up being cared for by someone, and we become adults while caring for someone.
We grow old caring for someone, and we die being cared for by someone.
This is the beginning and the end of life.
(...) How much of the caregiving that is the beginning and end of our lives should we hand over to machines, and what part should we leave to humans? Perhaps the answer to this question is the condition for our existence as ourselves, and for humans to exist as human beings.

--- p.105

For a long time, video and audio files have been tools for obscuring the truth.
It was 'objective evidence' that could prove the facts.
Regardless of East or West, 'seeing is believing', and it was more certain to know by seeing for oneself than to guess.
Seeing with the eyes was the most powerful measure of truth.
The recorded conversation was one of the most powerful pieces of evidence that could have turned the situation around.
But deepfake technology makes it easy to create someone's face.
He is also good at imitating someone's voice.
This is an experience like no other
--- p.
124

When people consume and share content online, truth is not a priority.
It's more important that it aligns with my beliefs and values.
When the information we want to share reinforces our own identity, social status, and beliefs, we are more likely to adopt and share it with others.
The same applies when it comes to guaranteeing profits and revenue.
This is why false information spreads so easily and continuously.
--- p.127

Regardless of the era, there has always been propaganda and manipulated information to capture people's hearts.
Lies, reflecting various purposes and desires, were passed off as truth.
In that sense, the major problem we face recently is not the increase in fake news and misinformation.
It is the end of faith and the collapse of trust.
Deepfakes, indistinguishable from reality, go beyond dazzling our eyes and ears and make us doubt what we see and hear.
Algorithms exclude facts that do not match our interests.
Not only does it make us distrust information that doesn't align with our feelings and desires, it also causes us to abandon our faith and trust in many of the things we've collectively built.
--- p.135~136

The tools they use are not far away.
It's in our most private and intimate places, including our smartphones.
It is disguised as ‘recommendation’ in various media and services such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Thread, and YouTube.
These tools don't even wait for us to come in.
They use 'notifications' to constantly tempt us to come in.

--- p.158~159

AI assistants can explore and evaluate the world around us on our behalf.
It can search, recommend, translate, summarize, and inform in real time, as well as suggest, warn, advise, and mediate.
The subject of arbitration also includes human relationships.

--- p.161

This technology certainly makes us look smarter and more clever.
Because it can handle a lot of work in a short period of time and has a low probability of failure.
Many of the 'risky options' that take a long time and have a high probability of failure have already been eliminated in the filtering process.
But this situation inevitably raises the following question:
Could it be that I am mistakenly thinking that what AI thought was my own?
--- p.163

It is possible that AI services, which are becoming increasingly personalized and intelligent, will use productivity, efficiency, and convenience as weapons to influence our thoughts, actions, and emotions.
We can adjust our perception and attention.
(...) now we give them what they want, but in the future they can sneak in what those who give them more money want.
By recommending, suggesting, and advising for their benefit rather than ours, we can fool people into thinking that their choices are of their own free will.

--- p.163

The issues of value and ethics that remain unresolved and unconsensus in the real world remain unresolved and unconsensus even with the use of artificial intelligence.
--- p.183

We don't need to experience how killer robots could be used in the hands of dictators, terrorist groups, or fanatics.
History has already proven how morally depraved and evil humans can become.

--- p.194

Ultimately, we must ask "humans," not "AI technology," whether AI will take our jobs, whether automation driven by technological advancement will lead to mass unemployment, or whether billions of people will become economically redundant.
Because it is the humans who adopt the technology that determine human jobs.

--- p.218

In a situation where 'knowledge' and 'skills', which have long been the subject of learning, are being automated by artificial intelligence, what should be the subject of learning?
--- p.237

The reason we need to answer this seemingly philosophical question is simple.
Because only the answer to this question can allow us to move forward.
In a world where everything is uncertain and unpredictable, changeable external factors cannot be the goal of life.

--- p.256

We have been learning and studying the external world outside of us.
(...) But now things have changed.
It has become important to know myself, the subject of learning. (...) Learning that begins with myself and moves toward the outside world has become important.
--- p.257

Ethics are questions about life.
It is a question that asks what is right and wrong in our lives, as well as how we should live and why we should live that way.
Ethics is a question about values ​​and the norms and rules we should follow in life.
It is not an 'appendix' attached to a law, policy, or technology, but a 'principle' that should be incorporated into our lives.

--- p.287

Humans, who share the same senses as animals, cannot view the world only through human eyes.

--- p.308

It is true that advances in science and technology, including artificial intelligence, are restoring our daily lives, which have been disrupted by disease, accidents, and aging, and expanding our options for continuing our lives.
But such technological advancements do not answer the question of why we should continue living.
The answer to the question of why we should live longer is the same.
Of course.
Asking why we should live long is asking why we should live.
Because it is a question about the purpose and meaning of life.
(...) because it is individual.
The answer to this question can only be given by specific individuals living today.
Ultimately, the meaning of life can only be invented concretely by each and every person.

--- p.313