Adrian Barich: If AI and robots do all the jobs and no one has to work for a living, what then?

Imagine a life in 2050 where artificial intelligence will manage all entertainment, information and communication. The screen on the wall of your home will not only display items, it will also mediate your life. It handles calls, meetings, learning… really whatever you want.

It will be called something like “The Hub” or “The Portal” and will likely be a much fancier version of the “telescreen” in George Orwell’s 1984 book.

One day, probably in the not-too-distant future, you might hear an AI version of Barra say: “And now from our world of entertainment: art exhibitions, gardening marathons, and cooking classes…”

Forget about work because there is no work anymore.

This isn’t the opening of some weird sci-fi movie. A vision of the future as defined by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk was recently part of arguably the most-watched episode in the history of Joe Rogan’s podcast, discussing what he envisions for the near future regarding artificial intelligence, robotics, and the nature of work.

He predicted that one day “probably none of us will have a job” because artificial intelligence and robots will do almost everything.

And the world will be kind, even generous; a future he calls “universal high income.” Not just a basic welfare payment, but an age of abundance when goods and services cost next to nothing and human labor becomes optional.

On the surface, the view is breathtaking. No more stressing about whether your business will survive AI.

Instead, you’ll wake up every morning and decide to paint, sculpt, learn a language, grow vegetables, or reduce your golf handicap to single digits.

Those who are inclined to do less can lie in a hammock and read a book. Machines will handle everything else. According to Musk, there is an 80 percent chance of all these happening in the world.

I have to admit that it sounds pretty good at first glance. No early alarms, no deadlines, no gridlocked Mitchell Highway. Imagine freedom.

But then I started thinking about what I would actually do if work were optional.

I would definitely walk the dog more. And I would spend more quality time with my family. Maybe I’d even learn to cook spaghetti, steak, or something that didn’t involve eggs.

I would make sure I spent more days with my mother; really maximizing my time with him. Because this is the feature of modern life; There is never enough time.

But the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I became.

If my children do not need to work – if they can live comfortably without studying, without having a career behind them, without even striving or pushing for anything – then what will happen?

What will we harass them about? What would they dream of? What would happen to those little lessons we like to teach about working hard and doing something useful with their lives?

Talk about loss of identity. What will shape our present in the 2050s?

Musk’s prediction is not a distant dream. Artificial intelligence and robotics are already changing the way we live and earn. Autonomous trucks are already plying around the Pilbara, and I hear of an automated port being set up in Singapore.

Perhaps retirees are the closest thing we have to a test case. Many people say the hardest part of retirement isn’t the financial adjustments, but the emotional parts. The silence where there used to be busyness. “What is the meaning of life?” You can only play so much golf before you ask: (Honestly for me this would take many years of daily play.)

This question may soon apply to all of us.

Musk talks about the utopian-sounding “universal high income”; An economy so productive that everyone gets a generous share and no one has to work to survive. But even if robots offer us comfort and convenience, they cannot give us meaning. People are weird that way. We like to feel like we’ve won something. We desire progress, contribution, even struggle.

I have always believed that a father’s greatest wish is for his children to have a better life than he did. Or as the wise and well-known parenting adage goes: “When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.” (One of the greatest fatherhood quotes.)

What will “better” look like in 20 to 30 years?

Maybe it’s more about character than career. It’s about kindness rather than KPIs. Maybe we will measure a successful life by how much joy we create rather than how much we earn.

So get ready for the ultimate philosophical conundrum: If our purpose is not to work, then what is?

But even though I couldn’t help thinking about a world where I could take Frankie around at all hours of the day, I was reminded of former aged care minister Ken Wyatt’s startling statement that he had heard that up to 40 per cent of people in aged care homes “had no visitors 365 days a year”.

We could all definitely make a dramatic difference in this statistic if we had more time on our hands.