If I wrote on every thought that provoked me, or that I have been considering over the years, you and I might have book to read. I have read some interesting ways to keep people engaged when we're displaced by AI, so that we may meaning... I want to write about this transition, though. We're in the transition of displaced workers now, thanks to COVID rushing us there.
I work in mental health. We haven't even began to address the poverty and homelessness that is coming. AI and 3-D printing may make a dent, maybe even save us from too much suffering, but we're not equipped for in between here and there.
The way you described the weight/BMI problem is also interesting. Addiction is right, and the food industry monopolizing on that is right. And it is still more complicated than that. Eating healthy takes time and money. There is a predominance of obesity in lower economic circles. I work community mental health, and the government gives money to mental health programs to address weight. The company mandates we address this, because they get money. It needs to be addressed, but it so convoluted, that it isn't simply about educating, changing habits, improving nutrition and exercise... Most of the medications we take, for mental health and other conditions, result in weight gain. there other issues contributing to weight gain. Having a mental illness could result in weight gain... and so when I am triaging new clients, the last thing I want to do is say, 'oh, and by the way, you're fat.' They know that. Being isolated results in weight gain, as we substitute comfort food for company. They more we gain, the more we're isolated. And then you have a group of people yelling, 'accept me for who I am' which is actually a louder group than you imagine, which also disrupts a conversation about aiming for healthy.
If AI does but one thing, learns us, becomes our friends, and ends loneliness and depression, and enables us to have food that fits our genetic make up (because diet could be eating the right thing for you personal DNA signature) that alone may help us move towards health.
