Most jobs 100 years ago no longer exist. Most jobs that exist today were created by the advancing march of the machines.
Bill Joy (of Sun Microsystems, and the vi editor) wrote an article in Wired more than 20 years ago, [1] "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us". He saw the same problem. All but extremely specialized intellectual labour may be automated and no one has any services or work they can sell. The people who own the capital no longer need the masses.
There are no easy answers. Maybe we avoid this crisis through a mix of busy work programs, service work (people will always want people to wait on them with a human touch, I suspect), taxation, social programs and, indeed, new jobs created by new technology. Maybe there is a revolution coming in the not so distant future. Capitalism that eliminates labour altogether is perhaps the ultimate contradiction and the resolution leads us to fully automated luxury space communism. Maybe society collapses from the unrest. Maybe AI and semiconductors run into a brick wall and machines two hundred years from now are no more impressive than an iPhone would have been to someone in 2005.
> The people who own the capital no longer need the masses.
those masses still have needs, even if they are very basic needs like roof, food or physical security... As long as whole world does not descent into global favela (and even then people will have to coexist which means some forms of trade...?)
Bill Joy (of Sun Microsystems, and the vi editor) wrote an article in Wired more than 20 years ago, [1] "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us". He saw the same problem. All but extremely specialized intellectual labour may be automated and no one has any services or work they can sell. The people who own the capital no longer need the masses.
There are no easy answers. Maybe we avoid this crisis through a mix of busy work programs, service work (people will always want people to wait on them with a human touch, I suspect), taxation, social programs and, indeed, new jobs created by new technology. Maybe there is a revolution coming in the not so distant future. Capitalism that eliminates labour altogether is perhaps the ultimate contradiction and the resolution leads us to fully automated luxury space communism. Maybe society collapses from the unrest. Maybe AI and semiconductors run into a brick wall and machines two hundred years from now are no more impressive than an iPhone would have been to someone in 2005.
Speculating here, obviously. All anyone can do.
[1] https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/