Yeah, it’s folly to think they’re not going to replace you in a “physical” job. ANI is a long way from AGI, but literally all of the things people say “robots can’t do that!” - maybe not right now, but they sure as shit are working on enabling them to handle the specific components of the job, or they’re creating systems that can be adapted to do so.

People just a few years ago were scoffing at the idea of AI artwork, and look how that’s turning out now.

Yep.

“Great Filter, dead ahead, cap’n!” “Excellent! Hold course and accelerate to flanking speed!”

Yeah, I would concur that that would be the rational response. Unfortunately, we’re not a rational species to begin with, and the political and economic power are all concentrated in the hands of particularly irrational sociopaths. So as a result, humanity gets to witness what happens when the unstoppable force of automation-driven capitalism meets the immovable object of human needs.

In all likelihood, we’re going to cling to capitalism because the wealthy and powerful demand it, decay into full-blown fascism propped up by automation and resource wars, mass extermination of the poor and unemployed where possible (through either violence or willful neglect), and when that inevitably no longer remains feasible, total collapse of society. Should our species and a sufficient amount of technology survive that, there’s definitely a slim chance at a civilized AI-enabled humanity to emerge from the ashes.

When it finds a practical purpose beyond escapism, virtual reality can evolve past escapism. As it is, there’s almost nothing VR can do better than its meatspace equivalent or which cannot be accomplished through the use of less disorienting/less confining/less obnoxious tools.