When the "Work To Live" paradigm ends we will begin an era that is both foreign to us and familiar to us. It will be like it was for many who were enslaved throughout our colorful and often reprehensible past.
Many who were freed after years and sometimes generations of enslavement just didn't know what to do with themselves! Where do I live, how do I survive, where do I go?
During this time we will have some huge adjustments to make. It will be somewhat familiar in that we face the same kind of dilemma when we retire from our day-to-day job. After decades of going to work, coming home and pausing for a vacation now and then, all of a sudden we have to figure out what to do with ourselves! The very prospect of this is terrifying to some. Our identity is so tightly wrapped around our occupation that we may have forgotten or maybe never even knew what we wanted for ourselves outside of our job. What purpose do we have?
Some of you reading this may by now be saying to yourself, "this won't happen" because you can't see how the "work to live" paradigm would end. But I can assure you that it most certainly will end and the end is near. My estimate is that by 2040, 90% to 95% of all our needs will be met by technology that does not require human assistance. Whats more and even scares me a bit is that by this time artificial intelligence will not only be used to replace many human functions but it will also be inventing and streamlining better artificial intelligence. Once this process is underway, there is no turning back short of a global EMT or some other catastrophic melt-down.
Machines will be doing most of the work once done only by humans and creating most everything that human beings want or need. When you want to travel, you simply let your personal AI assistant know where and when. You will be transported in a way that you will be able to relax and carry on as if you were at home. Think of it like having a motor-home with your own expert driver on perfect roads that are only shared by other expert drivers. It will be rare occasion that you slow down or stop as the transportation easily glides in perfect harmony with other vehicles and the environment.
Your on-board assistant will take care of your every whim as you relax, communicate with others, play or sleep.
Food is obsolete as the new nano nutrition bots that live in our bodies reduce our need for food as well as fulfill our need for food. You have only to figure out what to do with your time!
And so what do we do with our time? Everyone may choose to just have fun if they wish but many will not find that very satisfying for any length of time. Many will now spend their time making life better for others applying the known technologies in different ways and inventing new technologies that AI has not thought of.
Still, others will enjoy creating art and hand-crafting things just for the fun of it. Mainly the whole of mankind will be involved in the adventure of exploration and personal growth. By now, we have integrated with machines to a great extent and our intelligence, our physical abilities and every limitation that we once had is no longer bound by what we were born with. In many ways we have become God like and the only thing that is slowing us down is our experience as it relates to the whole of the universe. As we go, knowledge is instantaneously universally shared and we have evolved ourselves to something that even as I write this, I cannot imagine all of it!
Wars, famine, poverty, governments, countries and everything that we are consumed with or preoccupied by will be obsolete and nonexistent. Our greatest challenge will be to figure out how to not become so normalized to the extent that we loose our individuality. When everyone has the IQ of a genius and every need is taken care of, there is not much to fight about!
Thankfully there are many variables that have to do with our genetic makeup, where and when we were born, the sequence of our experiences and other factors that will give us some unique properties.
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