When Eugene (Gene) Wesley Roddenberry Sr. created Star Trek back in 1966, he started with the idea that in the future AI and robots will provide for all the necessities of life. In the 23rd century people no longer have to work to put a roof over their heads and a meal on the table, though they might pursue a vocation or education for its own sake.
What, then, would people do when freed from the need to work? Roddenberry’s beautiful answer, so full of belief in us: The most amazing things humans have ever done. And as we went boldly where no one has gone before we saw we were neither the greatest nor smallest of species and yet we earned admiration from friends and foes alike…for our humanity. Even the most advanced species found us, well, enterprising.
Nearly sixty years after the Enterprise first warped onto our TV screens, we feel a little closer to Star Trek-level AI. But instead of feeling excited that we are one small step closer to eliminating work, we worry that we are creeping closer to losing work.*
No one is saying the switch from human- to machine-generated wealth would be easy. Do we just change over one day, the way Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right-hand side on Sunday, September 3, 1967? I’ve no idea. But my point is we are not even framing the discussion in those sorts of terms. At best, even AI fans only pull out the argument that new technologies always creates more jobs than they eliminate (albeit not without social disruption) which is just saying there will always be work.
Is that the case? Must there always be work? Is that what we want? Forever?
What happened to boldly going?
*I don’t think we are afraid of AI or of losing our jobs to it. I think we’d be happy if we didn’t have to work. What we really fear is that a small group of people will take all the wealth that AI might generate.