"a future without jobs" is usually based on the idea that AI will be able to do anything humans could do for work, or enable one person to do the work of so many others that there's a major job shortage.

It's one way things could go, I guess. But it's also possible that we'll just have new work to replace the old. I don't know nearly enough about it to know which is more likely, as it depends a lot of how quickly we're able to improve AI.

If we have a fuel shortage due to peak oil in the future, manual labour for agriculture could be an important job. But that's not a certainty, and lack of fuel for farm machinery might not happen due to various reasons.

Some might call me naive for this, but I think a lot of rich people aren't that bad. They don't want society to collapse into chaos with most people starving, that'd be hell for them. Those are their customers, and the thought of their customers not having money to buy their products might be an unsettling thought for rich people.

The breakdown of order is rarely a good thing for the rich if it happens in their own backyard. At best, it'd make them prisoners of their own estate. Unable to go out in public because it was so lawless that they'd be at risk. That's what would likely happen if the majority of people couldn't get jobs, and also weren't given the money/resources needed to survive. Nobody important wants that.

Rich people like playing the game of wealth. The masses being out of work and starving is a threat to their lives and property. They could spend a fraction of their income on keeping the people fed, stop society collapsing, and bask in the praise of the people.

This is a far out hypothetical, but if jobs ceased to exist and the government wasn't giving people a UBI or food to live, corporations might step up and create the new job of 'consumer'. Everyone gets a corporation funded UBI, with or without strings attached. People have money to buy products, the system keeps working.

Or maybe something else happens. What do you think is most likely in terms of the job situation in the future? What kinds or categories of jobs could there be that most haven't thought of?

Just as a farmer hundreds of years ago couldn't have imagined someone would make a living doing commentary for Esports games, perhaps we can't imagine what jobs there might be in the future.

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Whatever happens, we will have plenty to eat, and my gut feeling is that things are going to be awesome.