futurology Futures studies, futures research or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social and technological advancement, and other environmental trends, often for the purpose of exploring how people will live and wor ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

, and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

, a post-work society is a

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

in which the nature of work has been radically transformed and traditional

employment Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

has largely become obsolete due to technological progress. Some post-work theorists imagine the complete

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

of all jobs, or at least the takeover of all monotonous, rule-based, predictable and repetitive (and thus unworthy of humans) tasks in the future by ultimately cheaper, faster, more efficient, more reliable and more accurate intelligent machines. Additionally, these machines can work in harsher conditions and for longer periods of time without stopping than humans, which is expected to lead to a transition period of rapid

economic growth In economics, economic growth is an increase in the quantity and quality of the economic goods and Service (economics), services that a society Production (economics), produces. It can be measured as the increase in the inflation-adjusted Outp ...

, despite high rates of ever-increasing human

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

. Overall, this development is expected to lead to an enormous increase in prosperity, provided that the wealth is redistributed.

Future directions

Future directions include the reshaping of the human role in the workplace, stressing the relative strengths of humans capable of adapting and integrating technology into their work and interaction. In addition to these capabilities, scholars emphasize the importance of humans taking advantage of these relative strengths, offering several areas which humans can remain competent in a rapidly developing workplace. These include emotional intelligence, service orientation, resource management skills, communication skills, and entrepreneurship skills. Scholarly literature defines such areas where machines may surpass humans as "task encroachment". "Task encroachment" presents an issue of growing encroachment of AI and automation into human work, especially in manual and cognitive tasks. It is estimated that approximately 40% of all working hours will be affected by AI models. It has been proposed for humanity to pivot towards roles that require emotional intelligence and

interpersonal skills A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socia ...

, assumed to be more uniquely humans. However, studies show that in some contexts, modern chatbots generate answers that are rated as more empathetic and qualitative than human ones. Some theories of a post-work society focus on challenging the priority of the work ethic, and on the celebration of nonwork activities. These theories also underscore the importance of developing community-based activities and self-improvement programs to fill the void left by traditional labor structures. Near-term practical proposals closely associated with post-work theory include the implementation of a

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

, as well as the reduction of the length of a working day and the number of days of a working week. Increased focus on what post-work society would look like has been driven by reports such as one in 2018 that states 47% of jobs in the United States could be automated. Because of increasing automation and the low price of maintaining an automated workforce compared to one dependent on human labor, it has been suggested that post-work societies would also be ones of post-scarcity. According to

Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom ( ; ; born 10 March 1973) is a Philosophy, philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, superin ...

, advanced artificial intelligence has the potential to not only automate jobs and create abundance, but also undermine the purpose of many leisure activities, such as shopping, gardening, or even parenting.

Future directions

See also

References

Further reading