So you don't mind if your economic value drops to zero, with all human labour replaced by machines?
Dependent on UBI, existing in a basic pod, eating rations of slop.
There's so much to do, explore and learn. The prospect of AI stealing my job is only scary because my income depends on this job.
Hobbies, hanging out with friends, reading, etc. That's basically it.
Probably no international travel.
It will be like a simple retirement on a low income, because in a socialist system the resources must be rationed.
This will drive a lot of young ambitious people to insanity. Nothing meaningful for them to achieve. No purpose. Drug use, debauchery, depression, violence, degeneracy, gangs.
It will be a true idiocracy. No Darwinian selection pressures, unless the system enforces eugenics and population control.
Yes, like retirement but without the old age. Right now I'm studying, so I do live on a very low income. But still, there are so many interesting things! For example, I'm trying to design a vacuum pump to 1mbar to be made of mostly 3d printed parts. Do vacuum pumps exist and can I buy them? Absolutely. But is it still fun to do the whole designing process? You bet. And I can't even start explaining all the things I'm learning.
> This will drive a lot of young ambitious people to insanity.
I teach teenagers in the age where they have to choose their profession. The ones going insane will be the unambitious people, those who just stay on TikTok all day and go to work because what else would they do? The ambitious will always have ideas and projects. And they won't mind creating something that already exists, just because they like the process of it.
We already see this with generative AI. Even though you could generate most of the images you'd want already, people still enjoy the process of painting or photographing. Humans are made to be creative and take pleasure from it, even if it is not economically valuable.
Hell, this is Hacker News. Hacking (in its original sense) was about creativity and problem-solving. Not because it will make you money, but because it was interesting and fun.
Seems to me like our culture treats both survival and reproduction as an inalienable right. Most people would go so far as to say everyone deserves love, "there's a lid for every pot".
Maybe, if the only flavor of ambition you're aware of is that of SV types. Plenty of people have found achievement and meaning before and alongside the digital revolution world.
This was the fear when the cotton gin was invented. It was the ear when cars were created. The same complaint happened with the introduction of electronic, automated, telephone switchboards.
Jobs change. Societies change. Unemployment worldwide, is near the lowest it has ever been. Work will change. Society will eventually move to a currency based on energy production, or something equally futuristic.
This doesn't mean that getting there will be without pain.
The economic value of human labour will drop to zero. That would be an existential threat to our civilization.
