Photo by Yuyang Liu on Unsplash
Can a world without work provide an opportunity for humanity to redefine success on its own terms? We may find out sooner than expected.
There is an increasing hysteria about AI, especially of the generative type, and its impact on jobs and the workplace, with some people advocating for a stop in AI research and many others saying that AI will end up taking all our jobs.
This prophecy is usually done with an air of doom and negativity, as though not having to work would be the worst thing that may happen to us. But would it?
I don’t think AI is going to take all our jobs any time soon. It may take some and enhance many others, but we are still far away from a total human job substitution by machines.
Still, with the world of technology, you never know, things can change very rapidly, so it is worthwhile reflecting on what a world without work would look like.
The meaning of life or lack thereof
I have written about the meaning of life in different posts, but this one gathers most of my thoughts.
I believe there is not one meaning of life. We all give meaning to our lives differently, and the big secret is that each of us must find what gives meaning to our life.
For that, self-awareness and self-knowledge are essential, as we cannot pursue a life that makes us happy if we don’t really know who we are.
Many people in today’s society give meaning to their lives through their careers. They get fulfilment in what they do and find social status in the wealth and position they earn thanks to their occupation.
I won’t judge whether this is the right way to proceed or the desirable state of affairs, but this is the way it is.
Human beings are social animals that play social games and require recognition from the group. We used to do this by being the best hunter or collector or being the shaman of the tribe. Now we do it by leading a company, being an engineer working on complex projects or creating new products and services for others to use.
We gain recognition, fulfilment and satisfaction in our careers, and we often find our life purpose in what we do.
In a world where machines did all the work, what would happen with all this fulfilment, recognition and purpose? Where would we find them?
We don’t need work to be fulfilled, or do we?
In sociology circles, it is often cited a study from the 1930s on the effects of unemployment in society, the Marienthal study.
Marienthal was an Austrian town ravaged by unemployment after the 29 crash and the Depression that ensued. Some psychologists and sociologists studied almost 500 unemployed families living in that town.
The conclusions of the study were revealing:
“The unemployed experienced lower expectations and activity, a disrupted sense of time, and a steady decline into apathy. They tended to be lonely, isolated, hopeless and passive, yet prone to bursts of violence.”
There have been other studies about the psychological damage being unemployed can have on our minds, attitudes and outlook.
Marienthal and similar studies demonstrated unemployment’s negative and hurtful consequences, but they all did so in a context where some people worked, and others didn’t. It is not possible today to reproduce a society where nobody works to study the effects of unemployment on its citizens because we need people to be active for society to keep tacking along and for us to survive.
It is not the same, psychologically and mentally, to be unemployed in a society where the majority are working, and the social status is earned by the work one does than when not working is the norm and all are in the same situation.
The closest we have been to this kind of society is in societies where a big part of the population was enslaved and did most of the work, like in Ancient Greece and Rome. Back then, work was not a necessity for happiness and fulfilment.
The “free” citizens of those societies got their fulfilment in philosophy, the arts, and politics, or the simple pursuit of pleasure and hedonism.
Enter self-actualisation and creativity
We didn’t evolve to need work to feel happy.
What human beings need to be happy and feel fulfilled is self-actualisation. We need to express our creativity and feel we are learning and growing.
During the last few centuries, we have relied on work to find the release for this need for self-actualisation, creativity and learning, but it wasn’t always like this, and it doesn’t have to be like this.
Self-actualisation is about knowing yourself, accepting who you are, and trying to reach the full potential of who you can become. You don’t need formal employment for that.
You can reach your full potential by doing something creative, like writing, painting or playing an instrument, or by focusing on a hobby, learning new skills, helping people in need, or myriad other ways.
A world without work could usher in a new Renaissance where robots and AI did all the work and created a world of abundance, and human beings dedicated their time to self-growth and creativity. We could also spend this time socialising with people we love and like, playing with our children, doing exercise, travelling or doing any other pleasant activity.
Then again, it is entirely plausible that many of us wouldn’t know what to do with so much time, and we would spend it seeking easy pleasure.
Sex, drugs and virtual reality
Knowing the inclinations of the human species, some people would profit from this newfound freedom given by a world without work to work on their self-actualisation and find deep happiness. However, many others would feel like the subjects of the Marienthal study and would feel lost.
This latter group would be easy victims to the quick pleasures made available to them. Ever-more potent design drugs would keep people perpetually high, playing their preferred superhero or having sex with their favourite actress in a perfectly simulated virtual world.
In this world, many people wouldn’t physically leave their houses ever but would virtually travel to other worlds and live a fictitious second life.
Inequality in a world without work
Inequality has been rising over the last few decades, but if you think we are living in an unequal world today, wait until we get to one with no work for human beings.
As Thomas Piketty showed us in his best-selling work Capital in the 21st Century, when income from capital surpasses the total income from labour, inequality rises. In a world without work, people would stop working, but someone else would continue producing the goods and services required for us to live a comfortable life: robots and AI.
These would be owned by companies, who would, in turn, be owned by shareholders. These shareholders would receive ever-growing returns, as they would be responsible for all the economic activity required for society to function.
In a world without work, labour income would be zero or very close to it. The masses would be paid a Universal Basic Income (UBI) or a similar scheme, paid for by taxing the companies producing the goods.
These companies would be the only ones producing wealth, so they would pay an enormous tax bill, a tax bill sufficient to sustain the rest of society. Still, they would be left with a huge amount of money, and the wealth differences between the shareholders and not-shareholders would only grow with time.
Unless we reach something similar to the Fully Automated Luxury Communism promulgated by Aaron Bastani, inequality will only grow in this society.
Historically, whenever inequality has grown disproportionately, it has led to riots and revolutions. Still, it is not clear that would be the case when a big part of society is happy and fulfilled pursuing their passions and self-growth, and the other part is sedated, playing games and having virtual sex.
Meaning in a world without work
We don’t need work to be happy, but that doesn’t mean that a world without work would be an easy utopia where everybody would be happy.
The transition to a world without work would be disruptive and difficult, and many people would suffer. Some people would find happiness and fulfilment and finally be able to focus on their true calling and do what they were supposed to do. They would become experts in tropical birds or the big expanses of the cosmos, paint or write, or help disadvantaged communities.
Many others, however, would rely on escapism into a virtual world and would live a life that wasn’t theirs in a world that isn’t even real.
A world without work would be a more unequal one, with the few dominating the many. A handful of people would have access to all the wealth and, thus, all the resources, weapons, and political and economic power.
Would the happy ones and the distracted ones do anything about it? Probably not, but who knows?
But before we get there, we need to have a world without work, and for all the advances in AI and robotics and all the doom-mongering around us, we are still far, very far from it.
