I'd like to start a discussion on the increasing use of automation to replace human labour, with the hope of predicting the resulting social reforms that will occur due to the replacement of labour in our society.
First let me set the scene, so that we have a shared understanding of where we are currently - and where we are likely to go in the next decade:
1. Today, autonomous mine trucks are beginning to replace labour at major mines globally. Automation packages have reached a price-point which pays itself off over hiring a driver in about a year - which means we should expect that a decade from now, all major mines will be fully automated: likely reducing on-site labour in the global mining sector by 90-95% (on-site mechanics remaining until we can automate repairs, so maybe a decade longer).
2. Today, automated farming robots are poised to replace farm labour as well - with a price point that can compete with minimum wage workers. However, this industry is poised to take a significant leap in the next generation of machines - which will likely prove significantly better than humans at farm labour for cost.
3. The stock market is controlled largely by algorithmic scripting today, rudimentary computer intelligence that can already vastly outperform day traders to the point where day trading is no longer really a thing: you just watch the computer do your work for you. At some point, the heads of these companies will realize they can probably fire everyone but the robots - this is an example of an educated and skilled labour position disappearing.
4. Complex surgeries are poised to be replaced by miniature robots in the next decade, making even highly-skilled roles such as Surgeons replaceable in the years to follow.
This describes where we are today - and where we will be at the dawn of tomorrow. The pattern should be clear, within our lifetimes we will watch the end of human labour. I'm not interested in mucking about with the details of predicting when and to what degree each profession will become automated - I'd like to ask the Gen-OT community for help in predicting what the resulting social changes will likely occur both while labour dwindles, and once labour is eliminated.
Who are we (our sense of self) without jobs?
What will people do with their time?
What economic system will sufficiently distribute the wealth created by automatons?
We stand on the verge of a tipping point for the species, it could be a dark time of riots and starvation and revolution - but together I think we can brainstorm some of the solutions before any of that - and ease the transition. Past advances in technology greatly reduced the amount of labour needed to perform a task - but this I think is different - automation outsources the act of labour itself.