My own dystopian prediction (and extrapolating from trends) is that more and more of the population will enter the services economy: - in zero-sum activities l

My own dystopian prediction (and extrapolating from trends) is that more and more of the population will enter the services economy: - in zero-sum activities like advertising - providing services for the mega-rich (there will always be demand for humans as servants, at the very least as a status signal and luxury indicator) - a lot of work in social and medical services (there's an expected shortage of nurses and elderly caregivers) - and cutthroat competitive non-productive activities like entertainment (which, if you want to be optimistic, would mean more finer arts and stuff, but it probably means more youtuber-style stuff). - Edit: and other labor-intensive "luxury" products, as shown by the rise of Etsy, craft breweries, organics, etc. http://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/manual-labor-luxury-good http://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/manual-labor-luxury-... There will be a lot of unemployment or on-demand employment or freelancing, unless governments start regulating (I hope not, I'd rather have something like basic income than make-work). Social services is one area where there can be growth, and create self worth, see this HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13037810 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13037810 , and particularly this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13039672 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13039672 Edit: One thing I'm NOT worried about is general AI taking over ALL human activities - as Alan Perlis once quipped "A year spent in Artificial Intelligence is enough to make one believe in God." https://cs.calvin.edu/documents/intelligent_machines https://cs.calvin.edu/documents/intelligent_machines