Mid-summer is peak vacation time, and if you’re taking a break from work, you may well end up wishing this period of rest and relaxation were longer. But how much longer? How about forever? Would you enjoy a life of total leisure?
Elon Musk, when asked to foresee the world’s artificial intelligence-driven future, said that’s becoming a real possibility—for everyone: “Probably none of us will have a job,” Musk said in May. “AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want.” Given the same prompt, legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said that for countries that adapt these technologies, “The need to work in society will disappear within 25 years.” The details of what this would look like remain fuzzy. Maybe millions suffer as they’re made unemployable; or maybe the vast work-free bounty is distributed among us all.
