Monday Musings over an Early Coffee (5.30am)

The Future of Work, Ownership and a Slower Life:

Climate, Resilience and Life at Chaos Cottage

Mornings are early here at Chaos Cottage, the dogs tumble out and the kettle sings, there is chaos from the moment we wake but it’s our casual, enjoyable chaos made up of excitable spaniels – it’s the start of another day and there’s breakfast, right?! Once the coffee and tea are made there’s time for a breath or two, and everything calms down.

This year though, calm has come with wellies and water pumps.

After weeks of relentless rain, what was a pretty little wildlife pond in our orchard, has swollen into something far larger and far less polite. Water now runs off the surrounding fields with determination, pooling where it never used to, testing the roots of trees that have stood here far longer than we have. We have spent much of this month (and last) quietly pumping, digging, watching and hoping. This weekend we lost one of our old cooking apple trees, a small sadness, but a real one. The tree was planted immediately after WWII when each cottage in the village was gifted a “cooker” and “eater”.

There are SO many fruit trees in our village that you literally cannot give excess away in the season! The silly spaniels look forward to the nicer weather not because they will be less muddy but because they start with plums, then move on to apples and then the pears. They also steal tomatoes from the polytunnel and continue with windfall apples until they really are so rotten, they’re being reabsorbed by the trees!

Anyway, plans for improved drainage have been drawn, a wildlife-friendly soak-away is underway, the garden will wait while we redirect what was my “new borders budget” into protecting what already grows. We obviously can’t begin until the ground dries, so for now we watch the weather, take care of what we can and carry on, in the mud…

Life here has a way of reminding us that change rarely arrives dramatically. More often, it seeps in slowly, reshaping the ground beneath our feet until we realise that we need to adjust, rethink and sometimes let go of what we thought was stable and “normal”.

So over coffee, I pondered that over our hedgerow, a different kind of change is unfolding that is quieter in daily life, but just as profound. Ai and automation. It's impact on our economic model and life itself. I decided to ask it how it thought we would cope and was surprised in it's faith in us (or rather whomever programmed it's responses....). I'm still not entirely sure if we're heading for Terminator or The Hunger Games but then I have always been a bit of a drama-queen!

Cottage Note: The following was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence. Which means, depending on your perspective, I have either embraced modern tools wisely or knowingly fuelled a whisper of electricity use, a drop of water consumption, a trace of air pollution and possibly contributed to humanity’s ongoing technological hubris. I remain undecided. The orchard, meanwhile, is unimpressed and would simply like less rain.

Artificial Intelligence and the Changing Nature of Work

Artificial Intelligence. Automation. Systems that can write, decide, diagnose and build faster than any human. Extraordinary, exciting… and, unsettling.

Beneath the technological revolution sits a simple question: If machines do more of the work, how does our human economy continue?

For generations, the rhythm was clear: work, earn, spend, grow, repeat. But automation, demographic change and rising living costs are reshaping that. Work may not be disappearing, but its shape is changing. Fewer lifelong careers, more flexible and portfolio working, and the growing importance of human-centred roles such as care, creativity and community but the significant decrease of other roles outside of these restricting our choice and potentially requiring a rethink around education.

Ownership, Housing and Economic Change

One of the deepest shifts of our time is not just about work, it’s about ownership. Many people feel locked out of property, our own kids included. Modern life as increasingly moved from owning to subscription - homes, tools, media and even everyday essentials — access has replaced ownership in many areas of life.

In my previous life as a venture developer I embraced this wholeheartedly – advising tech start-ups to look for exactly these models of recurring revenue but as a parent of grown children now seemingly trapped in the result of this shift, I question that personal asset and wealth building has been traded for convenience.

History shows that when too many people feel excluded from stability, societies eventually adjust (or collapse). Policies, economics and priorities generally evolve, not perfectly, not quickly, but steadily over time with, of course, the occasional revolution (though ChatGPT wasn’t keen on exploring that scenario). 

As I jumped down my rabbit hole of what a new model for human economy might look like, Ai assured me that with a reducing population, reduced working week and a version of Universal Basic Income to ensure consumption continues, we’d be fine. It chucked in some terribly optimistic models of shifting taxation from labour to capital but do we really think the billionaire class of “Tech Bros” will accept a tax on the productivity of Ai and robots, when they already avoid taxes as much as possible – often completely? There was also a lot of optimism about policy but do we have politicians that have our interests at heart, are honest and imaginative enough to create these? Maybe the Ai has more faith in humans that us humans but if it does, it’s been programmed to respond that way, right?

The Rise of Slow Living and Intentional Consumption

Thankfully, alongside structural change, a quieter cultural shift seems to be taking place. People are beginning to question the pace and quality of modern life.

Less disposable. Less rushed. Less endless consumption.More durable. More repairable. More local. More meaningful. More in-person.

In an increasingly automated world, the very things machines cannot replicate — human and nature-based connection, craft, land, story and community — may become more valuable than ever.

Resilience, Community and Real Security

True security has never come solely from wages. It has come from owning what we can, keeping costs manageable, having more than one way to earn and being part of a community rather than simply a market.

These ideas are not new, but they feel quietly modern again.

Looking Ahead with Quiet Hope

The future will not be perfect, let’s face it, life just isn’t. There will be change, pressure and adaptation. But history reminds us that societies can adjust and people can find balance.

Perhaps the coming years will be less about endless growth and more about steady living. Less noise, more meaning. Less speed, more substance. Less consumption, more care.

Here at Chaos Cottage, we are not trying to escape the future though we are commited to repurposing and reusing. We’re cancelling subscriptions that negatively impact local businesses in order to support these, we eat homegrown and from local farms and suppliers, and we buy organic and free-range. We are trying to meet meet the future gently on our terms with muddy boots, hot tea, wagging tails and a belief that even in changing times, there is still room for calm, kindness and a little sunshine.

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