>The point is that this desire and expectation of a completely frictionless existence, an unwillingness to work with life's "imperfections", where every discomfort is soothed and every craving sated by some external artificial source - this is the mental equivalent of refined sugar.

This wouldn't make people (as happy), but I suspect at that point (this is all speculation) there the ai would provide challenges and opportunities for growth. Think of a video game, people enjoy them most of the time because they are challenging not because they allow you to easily destroy everything with 'friction'.

People need challenges but there's a difference between balance and being crushed. How many people commit suicide, collapse into addiction, etc, because life became too much for them.

I would not want a 'frictionless' world at least for a long time, that would drive anyone crazy after a while. But I don't see reality as necessarily positive under every circumstance. Reality is not just some hard knocks but you gotta put in the work bullshit, it's incredible and arbitrary unfairness, cruelty, sickness etc, often without a clear path for growth. A kid dying of cancer at 3 is reality.

My 2 cents, interesting topic overall.