I think “at what point should work be considered unnecessary by the individual” is an interesting question. I think I would go a step further than whether it makes sense economically—if many people’s lives are still not very good beyond basic survival, I imagine a society of people that see moral value in working to improve the overall experience for everyone would be a better society than one where everyone just taps out when their own life becomes sustainable/meaningful without additional work required. I see no value in bullshit jobs that don’t actually produce anything useful, but I think there will always be ways to help improve the human experience of life even if the jobs of today become outdated.
(Ignoring the consideration of an aligned ASI that understands all our problems and solves them for us because of course there’s much to be done before we have a shot at getting there)
I think there will always be ways to help improve the human experience of life even if the jobs of today become outdated. (Ignoring the consideration of an aligned ASI [...])
I agree.
Problem is that “useful things” seem not much aligned with “profitable things”. For example helping other people is less profitable than finding new ways to get them addicted. So there is a risk that we will use helping people as a justification for making people work more, but in reality the extra work will be spent doing something else.
I think “at what point should work be considered unnecessary by the individual” is an interesting question. I think I would go a step further than whether it makes sense economically—if many people’s lives are still not very good beyond basic survival, I imagine a society of people that see moral value in working to improve the overall experience for everyone would be a better society than one where everyone just taps out when their own life becomes sustainable/meaningful without additional work required. I see no value in bullshit jobs that don’t actually produce anything useful, but I think there will always be ways to help improve the human experience of life even if the jobs of today become outdated.
(Ignoring the consideration of an aligned ASI that understands all our problems and solves them for us because of course there’s much to be done before we have a shot at getting there)
I agree.
Problem is that “useful things” seem not much aligned with “profitable things”. For example helping other people is less profitable than finding new ways to get them addicted. So there is a risk that we will use helping people as a justification for making people work more, but in reality the extra work will be spent doing something else.