Technological Unemployment and Psychological Well-being—Curse or Benefit?

Abstract

Most people spend a substantial proportion of their time in paid employment . As well as providing finances, work shapes people’s identity and status and has profound effects on their wellbeing and both their physical and their mental health. People generally suffer if they are unemployed. So how would people survive if technological advances mean that the majority don’t have jobs and will never work ? A variety of utopian and dystopian visions can be portrayed, and this chapter explores the psychological aspects of such possible futures. The key question is whether the benefits people now gain from being employed can be accessed by other means. The case is made that with sufficient insight, political will and economic fairness, it would be possible to replace all the benefits of working life and to do this without the stresses and pressures that now attend work for many people. Such a positive outcome could be facilitated by intelligent machines and AI systems acting as ‘leisure coaches’ and ‘personal trainers’. These could help people to replace work with activities that will more powerfully enrich their lives, enhancing their wellbeing and their positive mental health and helping them to identify new interests, new passions and new talents.