Maya stretched lazily in her garden hammock after returning from the morning’s Star Circle gathering. The community center’s dome-shaped ceiling had been especially beautiful today, its smart-glass panels shifting to show a real-time view of the cosmic particles constantly passing through Earth – a reminder of humanity’s connection to the cosmos that never failed to fill her with wonder.
At forty-six, she was entering her third “retirement,” and this transition felt different from the others. When the medical diagnostic AI had perfected its ability to spot cellular anomalies, ending her career as a pathologist, she’d discovered the Way of Cosmic Wonder. The community had helped her see her career transition not just as an economic shift, but as part of humanity’s greater evolution.
Her first retirement check – society’s way of saying thank you for maintaining that position until automation could take over – had coincided with her first Wonder Ceremony. Standing before the community, she’d presented her understanding of how the same atomic elements that made up her cells had been forged in ancient stars. The parallel between her own transformation and the cosmic cycles of change had brought tears to her eyes.
The automated delivery drone buzzing overhead reminded her of her second career transition. She’d spent eight fascinating years helping design empathy protocols for caregiving robots, until those too had evolved beyond the need for human input. Another partial salary was added to her monthly income, and this time, she’d marked the transition with a Legacy Celebration – not of life’s end, but of a career well-served. The community had gathered in the garden amphitheater, sharing stories of how human empathy had guided machine learning to be more compassionate.
Her neighbor Tom waved from his front porch where he was tending to an elaborate hydroponic garden – his passion project since the automated vertical farms had taken over most food production. He’d been one of the first to benefit from the Automation Gratitude Act of 2042, back when he was a truck driver. Now he supplied half the neighborhood with heirloom tomatoes and taught gardening classes at the community center’s seasonal celebrations. His Winter Solstice workshops on indoor growing had become a beloved tradition.
The transition hadn’t always been smooth. Maya remembered the heated debates in the 2030s when the first wave of AI had begun displacing workers. But then something remarkable happened: the Way of Cosmic Wonder had emerged alongside the economic changes, helping people see automation not as a threat, but as part of humanity’s evolution toward higher purposes. The movement’s emphasis on evidence-based understanding had helped people embrace the change while maintaining their sense of human value and community connection.
The corporate world had transformed too. Companies still competed fiercely, but now within the ethical framework of the Cosmic Wonder principles. The most successful enterprises were those that had mastered both “graceful automation” and community integration. Many had built their own Star Circles, where employees and AI systems collaborated while contemplating humanity’s place in the universe.
Maya smiled as she watched a group of teenagers heading to the neighborhood maker space, wearing the spiral symbols of the Way on their recycled fabric clothes. They would never know the old anxiety about choosing the “right” career that would last a lifetime. Instead, they grew up understanding that their lives would be a series of contributions and transitions, each valued and rewarded by society, each a step in humanity’s collective growth.
Her AI assistant gently reminded her about the community council meeting that evening. They were voting on proposals for using the neighborhood’s automation dividend – the excess wealth generated by the AI systems that now did most of the traditional work. Maya had an exciting proposal: combining the community’s gratitude payments to fund a new kind of art center, where humans and AIs would collaborate to create works expressing the wonder of existence.
As she prepared for the meeting, she noticed the blue dot symbol on her tablet – the community’s reminder of Earth’s precious uniqueness. The economic security provided by the Gratitude Economy had allowed the Way of Cosmic Wonder to flourish, giving people time to contemplate their place in the universe and contribute to humanity’s growth in meaningful ways.
The council meeting would begin, as always, with a moment of cosmic meditation – contemplating the vast scales of space and time that had led to this moment. Maya thought about how different this was from the dystopian futures people had feared. Instead of machines taking everything, humanity had found a way to combine technological progress with spiritual growth, creating a society where both material needs and deeper human yearnings could be fulfilled.
The evening’s discussion would include the latest initiative: integrating the Gratitude Economy’s retirement ceremonies with the Way’s traditional rites of passage. Maya’s own next transition would be marked not just by a new income stream, but by a Union Celebration – a commitment to use her growing financial security to serve the community’s highest goals.
As the sun set, painting the sky in colors that even the most advanced AI still couldn’t fully appreciate, Maya felt profoundly grateful. This, she thought, was the true gift of their age – not just freedom from want, but the opportunity to wonder, to grow, and to contribute to humanity’s journey among the stars.
End of Chapter one.
* Many futuristic stories I read are about dystopian societies. I asked Claude3, my AI assistant to work with me on writing a positive story of the future where people get a pension when automation takes over their job. They move to another job where they are encouraged to find ways to automate that job using AI, and are then rewarded with an additional pension when they achieve success. So, instead of AI taking away a person’s livelihood, it provides an ever increasing income stream as they go from job to job, making the world a better place, where AI does most of the work providing income and more leisure time for people to enjoy themselves and follow their dreams.
As John Lennon said, “Imagine all the people livin’ life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”
Peace & Love and all of the above,
Earl
earlthepearl137 