碳基打工人

A wry self-label adopted by Chinese workers to distinguish themselves from the AI systems increasingly encroaching on their jobs. By specifying they are 'carbon-based' — made of flesh and blood rather than silicon — workers humorously acknowledge their biological inefficiency in a world where algorithms never sleep, never need bathroom breaks, and never complain about their boss. It's exhausted millennial and Gen-Z humor wrapped in a sci-fi vocabulary, equal parts dark comedy and genuine economic anxiety.

As AI tools proliferated across Chinese workplaces in the mid-2020s, automation anxiety peaked among white-collar and creative workers. The term emerged from that pressure cooker, blending the already-popular '打工人' (worker drone) meme with pseudo-scientific language to mock both corporate enthusiasm for AI and workers' own perceived replaceability. It resonated with a generation facing high youth unemployment and an economy still recalibrating post-pandemic.

用"碳基"强调自己是血肉之躯的打工人，暗讽与AI竞争的无奈与自嘲。