Obsessing

This may be a repetitive post, but even on the cusp of retirement, I find the future of work a fascinating topic.   Growing up in mid to late 20th century America, most people, myself included, measured their self worth by the work they did and the value they produced.  Not working was something hippies and welfare cheats did and they were properly excoriated by society for violating this norm.  The recent spate of articles about AI or artificial intelligence explores the potential of this technology to change how we measure self worth in the future.  Many of these explorations of AI blithely claim it will be like many revolutions in the past.  It will take over many jobs now done by humans, but somehow many new jobs we can't even imagine will be created.  Unfortunately, there is a huge hole in this logic.  As Kevin Drum points out, if AI can meet or exceed human intelligence, then by definition it will also be able to do any new jobs created better than humans.   Many in Silicon Valley and other AI incubators are worried about what to do with a population with basically no work function in a future society.   With the automation of most routine jobs which will include many highly technical and well paying professions, how will our grandchildren and their progeny define themselves if they have not work function.   As we build machines with the ability to build more and better machines, will these super powerful computers decide humanity is disposable?  Or will the material abundance eliminate poverty and usher in a virtual heaven on earth where everyone can live up to his or her potential, freed from the drudgery and lack of choice forced on most of us in the present.   These are the questions our generation should be asking as we quite possibly face the end of work as a measure of social worth.