The Human, the Companion, and the Construct Need creates burden To want is to suffer. Every need exacts a price — first the mental effort of working out how to sate the need, then the physical effort involved in doing so. Imagine yourself sitting with your coffee, preparing to plan your vacation, picturing yourself on a beach, warm sun on your skin — but the screen in front of you reminds you of all the forms to be filled, the schedules to be matched, the logins and nonsensical navigation to be endured. You grit your teeth and push on. Hours later you're done, but exhausted. AI shifts burden from physical to instruction and oversight Recently, AI has emerged as a way to reduce this effort. You can prompt the AI to fill out the forms, match the schedules, navigate the websites, log in, etc. The AI can do these things well, but you have to instruct and watch every step.…