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We will all have more leisure time in the future: Difference between revisions
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{{a|maxim| | {{a|maxim| | ||
[[File:Dinocheckers.jpg|450px|thumb|center|Our future. Pity the poor [[robo-slave]] (out of picture): having to watch the idiot [[meatware]] mangle a basic Spassky/Fischer opening must be some kind of ''torture''.]] | [[File:Dinocheckers.jpg|450px|thumb|center|Our future. Pity the poor [[robo-slave]] (out of picture): having to watch the idiot [[meatware]] mangle a basic Spassky/Fischer opening must be some kind of ''torture''.]] | ||
}}The idea, propagated by [[thought leader]]s like {{author|Ray Kurzweil}}<ref>{{br|The Singularity is Near}}</ref> and more recently erstwhile DB boss John Cryan<ref>[[Rumours of our demise are greatly exaggerated - technology article|Rumours of our demise are greatly exaggerated]].</ref> and heir to the Susskind | }}The idea, propagated by [[thought leader]]s like {{author|Ray Kurzweil}}<ref>{{br|The Singularity is Near}}</ref> and more recently erstwhile DB boss John Cryan<ref>[[Rumours of our demise are greatly exaggerated - technology article|Rumours of our demise are greatly exaggerated]].</ref> and heir to the Susskind professional clairvoyance dynasty {{author|Daniel Susskind}}<ref>{{br|A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond}}. See also {{author|David Goodhart}}’s more thoughtful (but still, on this point, misguided) {{br|Head Hand Heart}}.</ref> that [[Chatbot|robots]] and [[artificial intelligence]] will, shortly, entirely supplant the need for human labour. | ||
Thus, our most pressing problem: ''what to do with all the spare time we’ll suddenly have?'' | Thus, our most pressing problem: ''what to do with all the spare time we’ll suddenly have?'' | ||
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Seeing as the [[meatware]] will no longer be needed to operate [[Jacquard loom]]s, wipe bottoms, write [[A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond - Book Review|wishful dystopian techno-political tracts]] or [[Change manager|manage business change programmes]], we will loaf around instead, playing [[chess]] and drinking grappa in the Peloponnese, the way Mediterranean pensioners have since time immemorial. | Seeing as the [[meatware]] will no longer be needed to operate [[Jacquard loom]]s, wipe bottoms, write [[A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond - Book Review|wishful dystopian techno-political tracts]] or [[Change manager|manage business change programmes]], we will loaf around instead, playing [[chess]] and drinking grappa in the Peloponnese, the way Mediterranean pensioners have since time immemorial. | ||
Sounds great, doesn’t it! (Best not to dwell on the thought that the robo-slave serving the grappa and wiping our arses could wipe the floor with us at [[chess]], too, if it wanted to.) | Sounds great, doesn’t it! (Best not to dwell on the thought that the [[robo-slave]] serving the grappa and wiping our arses could wipe the floor with us at [[chess]], too, if it wanted to.) | ||
Now if something about this scenario nudges your implausibility hooter, you would not be alone: there are at least two of us. | Now if something about this scenario nudges your implausibility hooter, you would not be alone: there are at least two of us. | ||
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And isn’t this the point? ''No-one'' knows what we might wind up doing in ineffable, co-evolving future: for all we know it might ''not'' be regulatory change programme management — but, ahhh, don’t bet on it — but if the past, ancient and modern, is any guide there will be something, it will be [[tedious]], and it sure as hell ain’t going to be chugging ''génépi'' over a backgammon board in the ''Haute-Savoie''. | And isn’t this the point? ''No-one'' knows what we might wind up doing in ineffable, co-evolving future: for all we know it might ''not'' be regulatory change programme management — but, ahhh, don’t bet on it — but if the past, ancient and modern, is any guide there will be something, it will be [[tedious]], and it sure as hell ain’t going to be chugging ''génépi'' over a backgammon board in the ''Haute-Savoie''. | ||
“Ahh,” sayeth the [[digital prophet]]s of our time, “but ''is'' the past any guide? We say it is not. ''[[This time is different]]''. This time the machines will not just be our handmaidens; ''they will replace us altogether''.” | |||
Okay; let’s run with that for now. Even if that is right, the theory of [[technological unemployment]] assumes: | Okay; let’s run with that for now. Even if that is right, the theory of [[technological unemployment]] assumes: | ||