What will the inevitable automation of work eventually lead to?

[Deleted]

With the majority of work being automated in the next 20 year's, what will become of the working man?

Mass poverty? Will the social welfsre system collapse and will people die of starvation? Will the world leaders find a way to a form of Base income and will humanity be free of labour?
Will we all start working part time to divide the work?

What will happen with life as we know it?

[Thoughtcrime]

Inevitably? Mass abundance and unemployment.

Everything else is open for debate. Considering that people at the top start losing heads when people are desperate enough I'd wager that an adequate basic income becomes a requirement.

[frogger237]

They will need to give some type of basic income because without jobs/money there wont be enough people buying shit to keep stuff going. Or mass kill off a majority of the population and create fewer and more specialized businesses.

[Deleted]

We'll phase out some jobs, and find new proxies for mating desirability.

[Deleted]

The upper class will be the ones who control the automatons code and hardware. A super elite class cartel that controls everyones everyday life. This can only be solved by the next step, self-evolving and developing AI taking over from human hands. Hence we will have a Deus ex machina humanity can no longer follow/understand since they can no longer be on same level.

[Independent voter]

Huge population crash, instead of 7 billion humans there will only be 1 billion or so. This will take 50 years or so to do.

[PC2]

With the majority of work being automated in the next 20 year's, what will become of the working man?

Automation is referring to automatic physical production. There will still be mental and cognitive work that can be done to make better or cheaper products and services. This has already been happening for decades and job quantity still went up.

[Aucald]

I would probably approximate it as first a society where a large cross-section of the populace is no longer work-eligible, leading to the creation of a system of universal basic income while the majority are retrained in information jobs or else new vocations beyond the scope of automation. Then onward to a post-scarcity society where the very idea of "wealth" becomes antiquated, with material goods being ubiquitous and universal - society then engineers itself toward vocations that are either innovative (science, engineering, technology) or entertaining (media, journalism, art). This model could be easily disrupted by large-scale warfare or a societal step away from the current trajectory of modern technology, of course; this is just the trajectory I see our society moving in.

[cubby]

With the majority of work being automated in the next 20 year's, what will become of the working man?

Mass poverty? Will the social welfsre system collapse and will people die of starvation? Will the world leaders find a way to a form of Base income and will humanity be free of labour?
Will we all start working part time to divide the work?

What will happen with life as we know it?

Dangerous levels of unskilled unemployment, followed by a major national reeducation initiative pushing into automation repair tech and maintenance, followed then by a surge of even-more-complicated automation eliminating most "menial" jobs, followed by a national reevaluation process, culminating in Universal Basic Income. Then: Art

[Thoughtcrime]

Automation is referring to automatic physical production. There will still be mental and cognitive work that can be done to make better or cheaper products and services. This has already been happening for decades and job quantity still went up.

Nope. General intelligence is coming for those jobs too.

Then: Art

Likewise for this. There is software and hardware that can already write music and paint. Machine general intelligence will eventually be able to do everything human beings can except MUCH faster and optimally. They will also be able to do things human beings cannot even imagine. It's literally like comparing the intelligence of men and worms.

[Gorgodeus]

Automation is referring to automatic physical production. There will still be mental and cognitive work that can be done to make better or cheaper products and services. This has already been happening for decades and job quantity still went up.

You honestly think that robots will be unable to do mental and cognitive work? One industry that is about to be hard hit by automation is accounting.

[Very Tired]

You honestly think that robots will be unable to do mental and cognitive work? One industry that is about to be hard hit by automation is accounting.

Have you worked an accounting job before?

Not everything is paperless. And some companies even use software that was made before any of us were even born so the idea they would be getting the newest state of the art technology to do their work is laughable.

[Forgettable]

If Trump has his way, everyone below a certain net worth threshold will starve and die, presumably.

[Symphonic]

Universal Basic Income will be necessary.

[Puupi]

Communism.

[PC2]

Nope. General intelligence is coming for those jobs too.

You honestly think that robots will be unable to do mental and cognitive work? One industry that is about to be hard hit by automation is accounting.

The OP talked about automation and economics. AI becoming as good and better than humans in every way means our economic questions don't matter anymore. The topic changes to whether it will see humans like ants.

[Thoughtcrime]

Communism.

There are arguments that in a sense a form of communism will become feasible with full automation. The idea is essentially that we as tax payers and society own the machines that create the goods we require, and are in turn paid a wage for selling those goods to ourselves and each other. The abundance of goods produced and the standard of living in a fully automated society would be exponentially higher than today. Much like how the average man in a moderately wealthy western country has more power and wealth available to him and a better standard of living than the kings of the ancient world.

[Thoughtcrime]

The OP talked about automation and economics. AI becoming as good and then better than humans in every way means our economic questions don't matter anymore. The topic changes to whether it will see humans as obsolete, will humans be like ants, etc.

Automation inevitably encompasses all productive human activity. Even without machine general intelligence we could and in many places already are replacing the majority of jobs worldwide.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I am betting on rainbow shooting dragons and heart throb fairies.

[PC2]

Automation inevitably encompasses all human activity.

Automation as it's used in relation to ideas like UBI does not encompass all human activity, mainly it is about physical activity. Many jobs are already services based on mental work.

Even without machine general intelligence we could and in many places already are replacing the majority of jobs world.

Okay well in the USA job quantity has been trending up towards 150m.