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Just watch Wall-E and there's the answer. :) Jokes aside: idle hands lead to new art, science, and culture on the one hand; and trouble on the other hand. For

Just watch Wall-E and there's the answer. :) Jokes aside: idle hands lead to new art, science, and culture on the one hand; and trouble on the other hand. For those with a natural inclination for creative endeavors they will explore. For people who have desires to conquer, pillage and plunder they'll go around beating people up and destroying things. For the lazy people that like sitting around, they'll end up just like Wall-E predicts.

slackstation 10y ago
A high percentage of unemployed young men roaming the streets of your civilization is a dangerous thing. But, if those young men aren't angry for not having a job and are entertained by things like video games all day. I don't think you'll have much trouble. People might take a generation or two to adapt but, we will adapt. Eventually, doing "nothing" with your life will be socially frowned upon so people will try to find interesting, unique bohemian pursuits if only to appear like an interesting and well rounded person at dinner parties. Men will certainly do this. Without the ability to make lots of money, men will have to have something to attract women. Men have been doing this for literally thousands of generations. It's not going to change any time soon. Also, I see a future where people will work out alot more. It's incredible how cheap and easy lifting something heavy repeatedly decreases stress, makes one more attractive to the opposite sex and makes one happy. In a post scarcity world, I see alot of gyms and not people too fat to get out of their chair. Even without the capital markets or paying rent to spur competition, there will always be the sexual market to spur competition. In a Wall-E world, the one guy who works out would get more women. The woman who worked out would get access to the best men. If both of these groups had nothing but free time, mating market competition alone would lead to an explosion of attractive people. If one was raised not to over-eat or was constantly stressed out from work (in order to survive) then the chances of being obese would drop. People today are fat because they sit all day, get stressed from work. Poor people are stressed because they don't have enough money. Rich people are stressed (maybe less so) because they are competing to get more money. If you have massive unemployment from technology, you won't have the social stigma of not having a job. Or to put it another way, you can surround yourself with people who are jobless and you'll compare yourselves in other ways. We already see this with hipsters. Millennials already are in the first generation of post-Work thinking. They already demand more from a job than just a steady paycheck (often because finding and getting one is so hard). They look for fulfillment, work/life balance and opportunities to change the world for the better. This will only continue and deepen. Despite media that competes for attention by making more and more dire predictions and alarming rhetoric, the world is largely getting better. More diseases are being eradicated, billions are being lifted out of poverty, billions more are gaining access to the entirety of the world's information. There are interesting problems to solve and they will be solved quickly in our lifetimes. It will be extremely pleasing to be a part of the world as we eliminate poverty and bring the global standard of living up to where the poorest of us will still be able to live a decent life. The optimal path could usher in the greatest climb and heights humanity has ever seen. We could make a world better than people 200 years ago could have even imagined. We could potentially make basically Heaven on Earth if we play this right. > Edited for grammar and clarity. It's still a bit rambly

slackstation 10y ago

A high percentage of unemployed young men roaming the streets of your civilization is a dangerous thing. But, if those young men aren't angry for not having a job and are entertained by things like video games all day. I don't think you'll have much trouble. People might take a generation or two to adapt but, we will adapt. Eventually, doing "nothing" with your life will be socially frowned upon so people will try to find interesting, unique bohemian pursuits if only to appear like an interesting and well rounded person at dinner parties. Men will certainly do this. Without the ability to make lots of money, men will have to have something to attract women. Men have been doing this for literally thousands of generations. It's not going to change any time soon. Also, I see a future where people will work out alot more. It's incredible how cheap and easy lifting something heavy repeatedly decreases stress, makes one more attractive to the opposite sex and makes one happy. In a post scarcity world, I see alot of gyms and not people too fat to get out of their chair. Even without the capital markets or paying rent to spur competition, there will always be the sexual market to spur competition. In a Wall-E world, the one guy who works out would get more women. The woman who worked out would get access to the best men. If both of these groups had nothing but free time, mating market competition alone would lead to an explosion of attractive people. If one was raised not to over-eat or was constantly stressed out from work (in order to survive) then the chances of being obese would drop. People today are fat because they sit all day, get stressed from work. Poor people are stressed because they don't have enough money. Rich people are stressed (maybe less so) because they are competing to get more money. If you have massive unemployment from technology, you won't have the social stigma of not having a job. Or to put it another way, you can surround yourself with people who are jobless and you'll compare yourselves in other ways. We already see this with hipsters. Millennials already are in the first generation of post-Work thinking. They already demand more from a job than just a steady paycheck (often because finding and getting one is so hard). They look for fulfillment, work/life balance and opportunities to change the world for the better. This will only continue and deepen. Despite media that competes for attention by making more and more dire predictions and alarming rhetoric, the world is largely getting better. More diseases are being eradicated, billions are being lifted out of poverty, billions more are gaining access to the entirety of the world's information. There are interesting problems to solve and they will be solved quickly in our lifetimes. It will be extremely pleasing to be a part of the world as we eliminate poverty and bring the global standard of living up to where the poorest of us will still be able to live a decent life. The optimal path could usher in the greatest climb and heights humanity has ever seen. We could make a world better than people 200 years ago could have even imagined. We could potentially make basically Heaven on Earth if we play this right. > Edited for grammar and clarity. It's still a bit rambly