GUERNEVILLE >> The Supreme Court’s decision to end race and ethnicity as factors in weighing college applicants comes at what, weirdly, might be the best possible time, given the likely uselessness of higher education for most people, regardless of race, talent or intelligence.

With artificial intelligence technology (AI/ChatGPT) already stealing jobs from desk workers, why should any young person bother spending four or more years mastering knowledge and skills that AI can adequately do? The growing number of jobs lost to this crafty creature that seems to be nowhere and everywhere at once is startling enough to make us question our assumptions about how to plan a future.

If the goal was once to ensure a college education for everyone, the more prudent policy now might be to help people develop skills related to outdoor work and other physically demanding jobs. Chatbots can write, but they can’t change a lightbulb. They can’t plumb a house. They can’t heal the sick with a human touch or grow vegetables or perform countless other jobs that fill humanity’s most crucial needs.

For the confused, “GPT” stands for “generative pre-trained transformer,” which refers to how ChatGPT processes, requests and formulates responses. ChatGPT is trained via reinforcement and reward models that rank the best responses. Something like that.

While the reasoning behind the high court’s 6-3 decision on affirmative action is best left to lawyers — speaking of replaceable professions — the implications of the explosive expansion of AI into new arenas should be obvious to anyone.

During a visit with my son, I brought up the subject of AI, and he quickly begged a subject change. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because it upsets me.”

Unfortunately, he has reason to be worried. A writer with a law degree, he depends on regular clients to earn a living. He’s fine for now, thanks to his unique niche, but other writers similarly situated have lost their entire client lists overnight. Post tech reporters Pranshu Verma and Gerrit De Vynck recently described a Bloomingdale, Ill., writer, Eric Fein, whose clients — all of them — notified him that they were “transitioning” to AI. Is anyone not transitioning these days?

Fein has returned to school to become an HVAC technician. Another displaced writer, this one in San Francisco, has started a job as a dog walker.

Amid the disruption, irony remains fully employed. Is technology, in replacing humans, also making us more human? More time spent outdoors is surely healthier than sitting at a desk for hours a day. If more people turn to skilled labor, might we finally be able to find dependable help on household troubles beyond our ken?

A forthcoming “wearable AI assistant” from a company called Humane is meant to revolutionize both technology and humanity. Imran Chaudhri, Humane’s co-founder and chairman, describes his pocket-size invention as intentionally humanizing, because it eliminates the need for devices — smartphones, watches, even computers — that act as barriers to human interaction. Chaudhri’s device performs the functions of all the above and more, using the palm of the hand as a display screen so your face is free to express emotions, make eye contact and, not least, see where you’re going.

Such developments are both frightening and exhilarating. The possibilities for liberation and creativity are limited only by the imagination. But the threat to life as we know it — and especially to white-collar (or work-at-home-hoodie) jobs — is potentially catastrophic.

On the bright side, AI isn’t always so smart. Or, rather, it’s smart in a Vulcan way. All brain, no emotion, makes for a lousy human.

The Supreme Court says affirmative action belongs to another generation and is no longer needed. It would be nice to think so, but my hunch is that many Americans would agree with Suzanne Szostak, co-innkeeper of Mine + Farm, my favorite getaway here in Sonoma County. Commenting on the ruling, she said, “I just wish the Supreme Court was an AI chatbot right now.”

— Kathleen Parker’s email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.