There’s something to be said for the power and uniqueness of a real person taking the time out to craft something real, unique, and meaningful to them. There’s a bravery in choosing to push forward through the changing tides of this world, where automatically aggregated news and information are rapidly taking over the spaces we once associated with human expertise.
In a time when just about anything can be generated from scratch in just seconds to minutes, it’s easy to start to feel like there soon won’t be any place left for human creativity in the world anymore, given enough time. For those of us who grew up on franchises like The Matrix and the Terminator series, it can almost feel like we’re watching the worst of science fiction coming to life in real time. But the reality is that no matter how dark it gets in this sense, we can never be replaced. And no, I don’t just mean that there will always be a need for someone to write a prompt or teams that tell AI what intelligence even is. No, the reality is, there will always be a place for the human touch, the human voice, and the human story.
Everywhere you look, there’s another story of AI taking over another job, another role, and another niche. Some outlets are shutting down altogether, unable to keep up with the pressure. For creators, the temptation is obvious: stop writing, stop designing, stop producing… stop thinking, quite frankly. It’s like we’ve essentially given up on ourselves and just let the machines do all the work. Even if we don’t, the results are still evident: we write, build, and create to feed (or defeat) algorithms. We give up on depth and emphasize clicks over context. We call it clickbait and say it’s done to drive views, but the reality is, we’re already serving the machines when we do that.
What we need to keep in mind, and never forget, is that no matter what huge companies say or do, we’re not products. We’re people. People produce products, but more importantly, people produce purpose. People possess perspective. And yeah, people preserve the poetic quality of life that makes it beautiful. No language model, no algorithm, no aggregator, and not even a quantum computer (whenever they eventually go mainstream), will ever reach, match, or exceed the deeply personal, lived-in, and perpetually unique human experience. Our experiences shape, and are shaped by, our memories, feelings, choices, interactions, likes, dislikes, and so many other essential components to our conscious engagement with reality that can’t be replicated by any system, no matter how advanced.
And I tell you this as a multi-faceted creator across many fields and with many years of experience – don't give up or give in to the notion that your voice and input aren’t needed anymore, even if it comes at the cost of time, views, or whatever else you stand to lose. Your authentic self is a gold mine waiting to be explored.
Social Insight: Real people are in high demand
When you really think about it, the success of platforms like Substack, Kit, and others shouldn’t be possible. Most of us despise emails to the point where we either count a clear inbox as a success or we do everything in our power to not even have to look in the first place. I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of person who typically isn’t looking forward to yet another newsletter that’ll probably never get to read on time and may not even remember by the time I’m done.
Yet, even I have signed up for numerous newsletters from folks I’ve barely even followed or interacted with, because there’s something to be said for a person taking time out of their day to share their insights, thoughts, or even just their feelings on matters that they find relevant or interesting. Even if I don’t always know exactly what they’re talking about, just the fact that they’re bringing a perspective that I don’t have adds to and expands my own experiences and knowledge base.
To a large extent, this foundational truth is what underpins the success of the very platforms I mentioned earlier. They aren’t necessarily doing something unique or innovative or previously unseen and undone. Quite frankly, what they’re doing is nearly as old as the internet itself: giving people a medium to hear and be heard by others. That’s it. They’re facilitating our ability to connect, and through those connections, we’re feeding one of our most basic needs: the need for the human touch.
Predictive text is a mere imitation
If we really think about it, our world is running hard after a glorified form of the very same predictive text that fueled endless memes and jokes back in the days before cellphones got “smart”. It can mimic us, and in many ways even outpace us, if the goal is a product, and not presence. But predictive text has no character, no matter how convincing an imitation it can deliver. It can spend countless hours trying and failing, yet it can’t walk away from that process with an intuition. It can’t feel the impact of what it learns nor decipher the true meaning of what it knows. It can give you an emotionally biased opinion, because it “learned” from someone what it should say, but not really why. Of its own accord, it has no opinion, really, and it can only play pretend if you ask it for one. It doesn’t know why it’s recommending that you don’t use “XYZ app” as your solution to “123” problem. It just knows that’s what sufficient parameters said it should say.
Only a real person can tell you about sleepless nights spent troubleshooting, or the satisfaction that came when they finally cracked the code and solved a difficult problem. Only a real person can tell you how a moment in their life made them try a new strategy that became their salvation in a moment of pain. Only a real person can give you the gift of their personal investment.
When you use a piece of software, or read a book, or listen to music, or even eat a plate of food made by someone else, you’re not just experiencing their arrival at a finish line; you’re partaking in their journey. As a matter of fact, when you read this post, no matter how long or short it feels to you, you’re taking in the value of my hours of planning, consideration of the topic, writing, editing, and finally publishing online. But more than this, you’re experiencing the culmination of whatever series of experiences and choices led me to the moment. This is what people are missing today: not just a particular style of speaking or writing, not overuse or underuse of the em-dash (which, as a writer, I’m personally affected by, of course).
We’re missing the life in the content and software that make up the livelihood of so many of us.
We can never replace us
I’ll end with this thought, and I hope that it truly resonates and marinates with anyone who reads it. No matter the trend, no matter the time, we will never be rid of ourselves and each other. It’s built into our very nature to need each other, to give back to each other, and to seek each other out on various levels. I see this daily in my work, not only as a writer, but also as an open-source contributor and advocate. People are craving that human investment in the content they consume, the systems they interact with, and most importantly, in themselves. If you’re still here to this point reading this blog, you’re likely doing so for this very reason, which I think is a beautiful illustration of the very point.
There will always be a need for the human touch because it’s the most powerful thing on the planet. That’s why I’ll continue to express it, even through this series, because I’m investing in you, just as you reading this invested in me.
Practical Tip: Find small ways to connect
As always, I like to leave you, my readers, with a practical tip that you can apply to your personal journey right away. This week there’s no exception. My encouragement to you this week is to find small ways to connect with others and help the human touch to spread and remain healthy. Whether that’s sharing your thoughts, writing down a secret recipe that could one day be the linchpin of a franchise, or even just telling your own story, real or imagined.
As a matter of fact, here’s a real easy one you can take right now: Leave a comment on this post if you were inspired and read it all the way. Your investment in my journey would go a mighty long way in encouraging me to continue investing in yours.
Here’s what I’ve published recently:
ADMIN Magazine
- Building a Persistent Local AI Stack
My latest ADMIN Magazine article walks through building a local AI stack with Ollama, Open WebUI, and Docker Compose, with a focus on persistence, safe updates, backup planning, and keeping the setup manageable over time.
If you want to stay in this lane
I’ve written some related articles in this series that you might find interesting if you liked this one:
AI, Ubuntu, and how open-source responds to a shifting future - The Roll Out
A look at how open-source can approach AI without surrendering user choice, ethics, privacy, or community trust.Linux Isn’t Falling Apart Because AI Found Some Bugs - The Roll Out
Why AI-assisted work does not erase human expertise, and why open-source transparency still matters when the tools around us change.Why form equals function - The Roll Out
A people-first look at software design, usability, documentation, friction, and why human experience shapes whether tools feel useful.The Social Side of Software Trust - The Roll Out
A look at how trust is shaped by perception, stories, social pressure, and the human side of software culture.I Built a Professional Creative Stack Without Subscriptions - The Roll Out
A behind-the-scenes look at creative workflow, open-source tools, and the personal choices that shape serious creative work.
Working with us
At RolandiXor Media Inc., we blend design and open-source thinking for our clients.
Elsewhere
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- Threads: @rolandixor
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Support this work
If this writing has been useful and you’d like to help sustain it:
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Catch you in the next Roll Out!
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