upvote
I think you're assuming work's only function is getting things done. Work also is a crowd control tool.
reply
Is it realistic to keep people working jobs that don’t get anything done in the long term? I know most people will say that’s already happening, but imagine a society where basically every job is just a bullshit job made to keep you occupied, do you think people will continue working in a society like that?
reply
Like you foresaw, I'll say this is the reality for most people. I think that just like now, those who want to do meaningful work will seek opportunities to do so.

If we had something like a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs but for work, I think meaningfulness would be the top of the pyramid. For most people in the world, not going hungry or affording housing are reasons enough to do work. Getting to do work you find meaningful is truly a privilege.

reply
If work is needed for "crowd control", why aren't popular holiday destinations crime hotspots?
reply
They are crime hotspots
reply
I asked Gemini to list the 10 most popular holiday destinations in the US, and the 10 places with the highest crime. There's only 1 place in the intersection: New Orleans.

Highest violent crime rates:

Memphis, Tennessee: ~2,400–2,500 per 100k

St. Louis, Missouri: ~2,000–2,100 per 100k

Detroit, Michigan: ~1,700–2,000 per 100k

Little Rock, Arkansas: ~1,600–1,800 per 100k

Baltimore, Maryland: ~1,600–1,700 per 100k

Oakland, California: ~1,400–1,900 per 100k

New Orleans, Louisiana: ~1,600–1,700 per 100k

Birmingham, Alabama: ~1,600–1,700 per 100k

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: ~1,100–1,600 per 100k

Cleveland, Ohio: ~1,500–1,600 per 100k

Most popular holiday destinations:

New York City, New York

Orlando, Florida

Las Vegas, Nevada

Maui, Hawaii

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

San Francisco, California

Miami, Florida

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

New Orleans, Louisiana

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina/Tennessee

reply
Gary Economics wants to have a word with you.

It would be fun to get to post-work society, but hard to imagine atm. TPTB won't let it happen

reply
But how this transition will even happen?

Soon we will have some machines that can replace 50% of jobs, and this will happen basically overnight...

reply
The steam engine replaced a lot of jobs. Tractors replaced a lot of jobs. Calculators replaced a lot of jobs. Computer used to be a job description before it was a personal device. There will be new jobs.
reply
Isn't the point of AGI that it can basically do any job?
reply
It won't happen though
reply
Come on, Gary is compulsive liar with zero credibility and really shitty takes. He’s entertaining though.
reply
Good take, I think his view is a bit simplistic. Also he also have a huge ego

"I am the best economist in UK!"

reply
Gary is not a voice worth listening to. A narcissist, fraud and has terrible epistemics.
reply
> Post-work society is an inevitability if we don't destroy our planet.

Is it?

reply
Walk current technological progress down the road.

I can't see a future in which almost every system (both physical and virtual) are not automated and optimized by autonomous entities.

What do you do when everyone is out of a job?

If you don't want pitchforks and riots in the streets, you give everyone UBI and housing so society doesn't collapse.

reply
> If you don't want pitchforks and riots in the streets, you give everyone UBI and housing so society doesn't collapse.

As much as I’d love UBI to happen, in current geopolitiks it’s a no-go. People are not happy with having what the others have.

reply
I’m all for an UBI but a future where people have no purposeful jobs, no way to actually make a real difference to anything around them, is a bleak one.
reply
Autonomous police drones will likely be able to handle the pitchforkers and rioters
reply
How do you determine who gets the house on the beach? Who gets the mountain view? Who gets stuck with the corner lot on a busy noisy road?
reply
It wouldn't be a redistribution of our current assets like that. I think there would be a whole lot of repurposing of these things.

The beach houses, mansions, mountain views could be vacation places, or used as libraries, or simply dismantled for the materials.

The "slums" on noisy roads could be eliminated entirely and used for something people don't need to be at.

We'd move to a more equal distribution of assets closer to the middle line.

reply
Or you build bunkers and build robots to keep the riffraff out. Shock collars on the guards' necks.
reply
> Post-work society is an inevitability

Ah yes because these AI companies are just gonna give away the models for free that I use with my free computer and free smartphone while I eat with my free food in my free apartment.

reply