Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Will Life Be Worth Living in a World Without Work? Technological Unemployment and the Meaning of Life

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Science and Engineering Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Suppose we are about to enter an era of increasing technological unemployment. What implications does this have for society? Two distinct ethical/social issues would seem to arise. The first is one of distributive justice: how will the (presumed) efficiency gains from automated labour be distributed through society? The second is one of personal fulfillment and meaning: if people no longer have to work, what will they do with their lives? In this article, I set aside the first issue and focus on the second. In doing so, I make three arguments. First, I argue that there are good reasons to embrace non-work and that these reasons become more compelling in an era of technological unemployment. Second, I argue that the technological advances that make widespread technological unemployment possible could still threaten or undermine human flourishing and meaning, especially if (as is to be expected) they do not remain confined to the economic sphere. And third, I argue that this threat could be contained if we adopt an integrative approach to our relationship with technology. In advancing these arguments, I draw on three distinct literatures: (1) the literature on technological unemployment and workplace automation; (2) the antiwork critique—which I argue gives reasons to embrace technological unemployment; and (3) the philosophical debate about the conditions for meaning in life—which I argue gives reasons for concern.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for drawing this problem to my attention.

  2. A number of books, some quite alarmist and pessimistic (Keen 2015; Carr 2015), some more cautious and optimistic (Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2012, 2014; Ford 2009, 2015; Pistono 2012; Cowen 2013; Kaplan 2015; Rifkin 1997, 2014), have been published arguing that ours is an age of increasing technological unemployment. These books have been complemented by research papers highlighting the rise of automation and the increasing share of income being taken by capital in Western economies (Frey and Osborne 2013; Fleck et al. 2011; International Labour Organisation 2013; Pratt 2015; Sachs et al. 2015). These have in turn been complemented by the work of a number of leading journalists and economic opinion writers (Packer 2013; Krugman 2012, 2013).

  3. This can also be referred to as the lump of labour fallacy, i.e. the fallacy of believing that there is a fixed lump of labour out there to be distributed among human workers.

  4. Brynjolfsson and McAfee also mention a fifth: the possible creation of android robots, i.e. perfect technological replicas of humans, only cheaper, more compliant and more efficient. This might be an apotheosis of the current technological trends. But some argue that it is a mistake to focus on human-like machines; it is the fact that machines are not human-like that makes them a displacement threat to human workers (Kaplan 2015).

  5. This is defended in Ford (2015) and Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2014), though the latter refer to the reverse income tax, which is effectively the same policy. Technologist and futurist James Hughes believes that technological unemployment provides a strategic opening for proponents of the basic income (2014). For further discussion of the basic income proposal, see Widerquist (2013), Widerquist et al (2013), van Parijs (1995) and Ackerman et al (2006).

  6. This view is implicitly or explicitly evoked in the automation-related work of Carr (2015), Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2014) and Ford (2015).

  7. There is an extensive literature on this topic, examples include Lafargue (1883), Black (1986), Gorz (2011), Woodcock (1944), Graeber (2013), Crary (2014), Russell (2004), Levine (1995), Maskivker (2010), Widerquist (2013), Weeks (2011), Schwartz (1982) and Srnicek and Williams (2015).

  8. Black’s work is extreme and polemical but is influential in the antiwork movement. Frayne (2015, 206–207) notes that members of the Idler’s Alliance (an organisation seeking to resist work) ‘repeatedly recommended’ Black’s essay to him.

  9. In support of this one could cite the 2013 Gallup survey suggesting that only 13 % of workers worldwide were engaged by their work. See http://www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide-employees-engaged-work.aspx. Accessed 26 Oct 15.

  10. This ignores the recent social push toward, and limited experimentation with, unconditional basic income schemes. I ignore this for two reasons: (1) the rollout of such schemes is minimal and typically not sufficient to meet basic needs; and (2) the increase in such schemes is arguably being driven by concerns about structural unemployment.

  11. Appealing to the goodness of the neutrality of the state with respect to citizens’ choice of the good life does not imply any particular view of whether non-work is better than work. It merely claims that the state should not impose a choice on its citizens. This leaves open the door to arguing that non-work would be the better choice. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for encouraging me to make this clarification.

  12. These can be understood as equivalent or distinct concepts. Dworkin (1981) argues, for instance, that freedom is local concept that applies to particular decisions, whereas autonomy is a global concept applying across a larger swathe of decision points.

  13. The way in which industrial capitalism polices and manages our times has been long discussed in the antiwork literature, see Woodcock (1944).

  14. This categorisation is consistent with those offered by Smuts (2013) and Metz (2013), but is taken directly from Campbell and Nyholm (2015).

  15. Proponents of simple subjective theories include Taylor (2008) though he later changed his view; see Campbell and Nyholm 2015 for more.

  16. Though note that Metz’s own preferred view is more akin to fitting fulfillment.

  17. I would like to thank KS for helping me to make this argument.

  18. I defend this view of future governance systems at much greater length in Danaher 2016.

  19. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for pushing me on these two issues.

  20. I take this term from Jon Perry and Ted Kupper.

References

  • Ackerman, B., Alstott, A., & Van Parijs, P. (2006). Redesigning distribution: Basic income and stakeholder grants as cornerstones for egalitarian capitalism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agar, N. (2015). The sceptical optimist. Oxford: OUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A. (2015). Inequality: What can be done? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Autor, D. (2015a). Why are there still so many jobs? The history and future of workplace automation. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3), 3–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Autor, D. (2015b). Polanyi’s paradox and the shape of employment growth’. In Re-evaluating labor market dynamics. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

  • Autor, D. (2015c). The paradox of abundance: Automation anxiety returns. In S. Rangan (Ed.), Performance and progress: Essays on capitalism, business and society. Oxford: OUP.

  • Beck, A., et al. (2011). Systematic analysis of breast cancer morphology uncovers stromal features associated with survival. Science Translational Medicine, 3(108), 108–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, B. (1986). The abolition of work and other essays. Port Townshend, Washington: Loompanics Unlimited.

  • Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2012). Race against the machine. Lexington, MA: Digital Frontiers Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. WW Norton and Co.

  • Campbell, S., & Nyholm, S. (2015). Anti-meaning and why it matters. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 1(4), 694–711.

  • Carr, N. (2015). The glass cage: Where automation is taking us. London: The Bodley Head.

  • Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. Analysis, 58, 10–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowen, T. (2013). Average is over: Powering America beyond the age of the great stagnation. New York: Dutton.

  • Crary, J. (2014). 24/7: Late capitalism and the ends of sleep. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cskikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cskikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cskikszentmihalyi, M. (2007). Experience sampling method: Measuring the quality of everyday life (p. 2007). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danaher, J. (2016). The threat of algocracy: Reality, resistance and accommodation. Philosophy and Technology. doi:10.1007/s13347-015-0211-1.

  • de Brigard, F. (2010). If you like it, does it matter if it’s real? Philosophical Psychology, 23(1), 43–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denning, S. (2015). The “jobless future” is a myth. Forbes 4 June 2015. http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/06/04/the-robots-are-not-coming/.

  • Dworkin, G. (1981). The concept of autonomy. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 12(13), 203–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleck, S., Glaser, J., & Sprague, S. (2011). The compensation-productivity gap: A visual essay. Monthly Labour Review, January 2011, 57–69. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/01/art3full.pdf.

  • Ford, M. (2009). The lights in the tunnel: Automation, accelerating technology and the economy of the future. Charleston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing.

  • Ford, M. (2015). The rise of the robots: Technology and the threat of a jobless future. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frayne, D. (2015). The refusal of work: The theory and practice of resistance to work. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2013). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation. Oxford Martin School, Working Report.

  • Gheaus, A., & Herzog, L. M. (2016). The goods of work (other than money). Journal of Social Philosophy. http://philpapers.org/rec/GHETGO. Accessed February 13, 2015.

  • Gilbert, D. (2005). Stumbling on happiness. Vintage.

  • Gilbert, D. T., Lieberman, M. D., Morewedge, C. K., & Wilson, T. D. (2004). The peculiar longevity of things not so bad. Psychological Science, 15, 14–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley, T. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617–638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorz, A. (2011). Critique of economic reason (2nd ed.). London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graeber, D. (2013). On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs. Strike! Magazine. http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/.

  • Gunkel, D. (2012). The machine question. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunkel, D. (2015). Resistance is futile: Cyborgs, Humanism and the Borg. In D. Brode & S. Brode (Eds.), The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the final frontier. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, J. (2014). A strategic opening for a basic income guarantee in the global crisis being created by AI, Robots, desktop manufacturing and BioMedicine. Journal of Evolution and Technology, 24(1), 45–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Labour Organisation. (2013). Global Wage Report 2012/13: Wages and Equitable Growth. http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_194843.pdf.

  • Kaplan, J. (2015). Humans need not apply: A guide to wealth and work in the age of artificial intelligence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keen, A. (2015). The internet is not the answer. London: Atlantic Books.

  • Krugman, P. (2012, December 9). Robots and Robber Barons. New York Times.

  • Krugman, P. (2013, December 13). Sympathy for the luddites. New York Times.

  • Kurzweil, R. (2006). The singularity is near: When humans transcend biology. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lafargue, P. (1883). The right to be lazy. London: Charles Kerr and Co.

  • Levine, A. (1995). From fairness to idleness: Is there a right not to work? Economics and Philosophy, 11, 255–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luper, S. (2014). Life’s meaning. In S. Luper (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to life and death. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Maskivker, J. (2010). Employment as a limitation on self-ownership. Human Rights Review, 12(1), 27–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menary, R. (Ed.). (2010). The extended mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metz, T. (2010). The good, the true and the beautiful: Toward a unified account of great meaning in life. Religious Studies, 47(4), 389–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metz, T. (2013). Meaning in life. Oxford: OUP.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr, J., Vickers, C., & Ziebarth, N. (2015). The history of technological anxiety and the future of economic growth: Is this time different? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3), 31–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state and utopia. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Packer, G. (2013, March 4). Upgrade or die. New Yorker.

  • Pasquale, F. (2015). The black box society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, D. (1995). The Hedonistic imperative. http://www.hedweb.com/.

  • Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pistono, G. (2012). Robots will steal your job but that’s OK: How to survive the economic collapse and be happy. Charleston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing.

  • Pratt, G. (2015). Is a Cambrian explosion coming for robotics. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3), 51–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ridley, M. (2011). The rational optimist. New York: Harper Perennial.

  • Rifkin, J. (1997). The end of work. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Books.

  • Rifkin, J. (2014). The zero-marginal cost society: The internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism. New York: St Martin’s Griffin.

  • Roth, A. (2015). Who gets what and why? New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

  • Russell, B. (2004). In praise of idleness (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, J., Benzell, S. G., & LaGarda, G. (2015). Robots: Curse or blessing? A basic framework. NBER Working Paper 21091—April.

  • Schermer, M. (2009). The mind and the machine: On the conceptual and moral implications of brain machine interaction. Nanoethics, 3(3), 217–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, A. (1982). Meaningful work. Ethics, 92(4), 634–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smuts, A. (2013). The good cause account of meaning in life. Southern Journal of Philosophy, 51(4), 536–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sönmez, T., & Unver, U. (2013). Market design for kidney exchange. In N. Vulkan, et al. (Eds.), The handbook of market design. Oxford: OUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Srnicek, N., & Williams, A. (2015). Inventing the future: Postcapitalism and a world without work. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, R. (2008). The meaning of life. In E. D. Klemke & S. M. Cahn (Eds.), The meaning of life. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Parijs, P. (1995). Real freedom for all: What (if anything) can justify capitalism? Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vulkan, N., Neeman, Z., & Roth, A. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of market design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, K. (2011). The problem with work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wertheimer, A. (1988). Coercion. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widerquist, K. (2013). Independence, propertylessness and basic income: A theory of freedom as the right to say no. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Widerquist, K., et al. (Eds.). (2013). Basic income: An anthology of contemporary research. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wielenberg, E. (2005). Value and virtue in a godless universe. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, S. (2010). Meaning in life and why it matters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodcock, G. (1944, March). The tyranny of the clock. War Commentary for Anarchism.

  • Zarsky, T. (2012). Automated predictions: Perception, law and policy. Communications of the ACM, 15(9), 33–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeckhauser, R. (1973). Time as the ultimate source of utility. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87, 668–673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Miles Brundage, Jon Perry, Ted Kupper and three anonymous reviewers for helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Danaher.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Danaher, J. Will Life Be Worth Living in a World Without Work? Technological Unemployment and the Meaning of Life. Sci Eng Ethics 23, 41–64 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9770-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9770-5

Keywords

Navigation