A Future With No Work

I have always been bothered by the dystopian picture that is painted about the future of work. Conversations about what the next 10-20 years will look like are usually about AI taking all of our jobs. Often, I feel that fear drives the conversation as opposed to excitement about the world of opportunity can come with the future of work. I am not sure that we will have a “workless future” but I do believe there will be fundamental changes in the way we work. I recently attended an event in which we discussed the changing world of work, the topic of the event was “A Future With No Work”. 8 speakers discussed their ideas about the future of work and what this transition may look like.

 Asking our selves “What does a future with no work look like”? Reveals some interesting patterns and assumptions that are woven into the fabric of society and what we consider to be a “normal life”

How will people define themselves in a workless future? 

In North America, our self worth and identity is often associated with our employment. Our societal structures are based on climbing the corporate ladder and it is not unusual for someone to introduce themselves and then immediately tell you what they do for work. This is not the case in many other cultures. 

In a workless future, how would people introduce themselves? 

One of the speakers introduced a concept which I loved called the “un-employed self” we all spend our lives doing unpaid things. Maybe it’s cooking, or running, or in my case a failed attempt at shoe making. Does a workless future enable us to bring to the forefront parts of ourselves that are currently hidden by our job titles? And more importantly, does the future of work require us to detach ourselves and our identities from our work making us explore and highlight other aspects of the self. I have always thought this emphasis on current employment is a challenge. Especially given that unlike our parents or grandparents our average duration at a job is 3 years meaning that today more than ever, someones current employment tells you very little about who they are. 

How will people spend their time in a workless future? 

Given that work consumes the majority of our lives what would people do with their time if they were not at work? 

I think the simple answer is, we would do everything else. We have accepted the fact that work consumes so much of our time, that we forget that each and everyone of us is built of a million different identities. Maybe people would spend more time on their health, or more time with their families, or more time engaging with their community. 

What does it look like to not have to work for money? 

There is a fundamental question about human motivation here. Is money the primary motivator for humans to do things? 

Recently, the United States of America presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, has brought light to the idea of a Freedom Dividend. Which is basically a rebranding of universal basic income. In a world where there are not enough jobs available, people will still need income to survive. The question is what humans will choose to invest their time in if their basic needs are already covered?

If I reflect on my own life, I would probably still spend my time doing a lot of what I do today, including my job. This may look different for other people and that’s ok. I think an interesting bi-product of a workless future would be that we buy back our time and feel more empowered to spend it doing what ever we want to. I do not believe that human motivation is attached to an income nor do I believe that a universal basic income would remove the motivation for humans to want to build and achieve. 

It’s clear that the idea of a workless future begs more questions than it provides answers. I love the idea of a future in which humans simply have more time to be human, to pursue their passions - even if they are not financially lucrative, and to be more creative and civically engaged. The idea of a workless future is not all negative and its time we start looking at the opportunities that will come from a human and machine integration.