Post-work society explained

In futurology, political science, and science fiction, a post-work society is a society in which the nature of work has been radically transformed and traditional employment has largely become obsolete due to technological progress.^[1]

Some post-work theorists imagine the complete automation 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.^{[2] [3]} Additionally, these machines can work in harsher conditions and for longer periods of time without stopping than humans,^[4] which is expected to eventually lead to massive economic growth, despite high rates of ever-increasing human unemployment.^[5] Overall, this development would lead to an enormous increase in prosperity, whereby it would be the task of politics to distribute this wealth evenly within the population.^{[6] [7]}

Other theories of a post-work society focus more on challenging the priority of the work ethic, and on the celebration of nonwork activities.^[8]

Near-term practical proposals closely associated with post-work theory include the implementation of a universal basic income,^[9] 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 that states 47% of jobs in the United States could be automated.^[10] 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.^{[11] [12]}

Literature

• Kathi Weeks: The problem with work: feminism, Marxism, antiwork politics and postwork imaginaries, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8223-5112-2
• Daniel Susskind: WORLD WITHOUT WORK: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond, 2020,

See also

• Critique of work
• Four-day workweek
• In Praise of Idleness
• Humans Need Not Apply
• Imagination age
• Post-capitalism
• Refusal of work
• Tang ping ("lying flat")
• Technological utopianism
• The End of Work
• The Future of Work and Death
• Workism

Notes and References

1. News: Frayne . David . Towards a Post-Work Society . 2 . ROAR Magazine.
2. News: Lynskey . Dorian . 2020-01-09 . A World Without Work by Daniel Susskind review – should we be delighted or terrified? . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-04-05 . 0261-3077.
3. Web site: Ox . Audit . 2023-07-27 . Chat GPT Creator Sam Altman Says Jobs Will Go Away Because of AI, It Will Not Just Be a Supplement… . 2024-03-20 . Medium . en.
4. News: Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs. Beckett. Andy. 19 January 2018. The Guardian. 2018-09-15.
5. Web site: Lu . Yiwen . 2023-06-14 . Generative A.I. Can Add $4.4 Trillion in Value to Global Economy, Study Says . New York Times.
6. Web site: How AI Could Make Everyone Rich . 2024-03-21 . Lifewire . en.
7. Web site: Clifford . Catherine . 2021-03-17 . OpenAI's Sam Altman: Artificial Intelligence will generate enough wealth to pay each adult $13,500 a year . 2024-03-21 . CNBC . en.
8. Web site: Thompson . Derek . 2015-06-23 . A World Without Work . 2022-10-25 . The Atlantic . en.
9. Web site: 2021-02-12 . What Will We All Do in a Post-Work Society? . 2022-10-23 . Treehugger . en.
10. Web site: Automation and the future of work – understanding the numbers. Frey. Carl Benedikt. Osborne. Michael. 13 April 2018. Oxford Martin School. 2 May 2019.
11. Web site: Will Robots Take Our Jobs?. Wolla. Scott A.. 1 January 2018. Economic Research - St. Louis Fed. 2 May 2019.
12. Web site: Traditional employment is becoming obsolete. 2021-08-27. www.futuretimeline.net.