If society ever reached a point where all your wants and needs were provided by automation what would we do with ourselves on our time here on Earth?

Leisure studies will be in high demand in university.

Unfettered hedonism.

Watch TV and grow fat.

We would be complacent, and die from it.
Or from boredom.

More of what we’re seeing now: desperate, hungry people grubbing for food and crowding doorways for a dry place to sleep or setting up cardboard shelters in muddy bits of lowland next to freeways. Going to jail for “three hots and a cot.” Watching children starve.

When all the work is done by machines, how do we suppose we ordinary folks are going to earn a living? The jobs that most of us do will be obsolete. Is someone going to pay us just for being adorable? Are the few who’ve accumulated all the wealth going to feel any more like sharing it than they do now?

Look at Russia for the answer to that. According to Karen Dawisha (Putin’s Kleptocracy, 2014), 110 people control 35% of Russia’s wealth. According to Bill Browder (Red Notice, 2015, and the man behind the Magnitsky Act, a major thorn in Putin’s side), about 22 men have appropriated 39% of Russia’s riches. Do we think they’re inclined to give it back?

This didn’t happen because of technology, but the point is, the insatiable greed of the rich and powerful leaves no room for humanitarian concerns. If the ordinary people like us all died off, it wouldn’t affect them much beyond whatever minor inconvenience it caused them.

Among the many things we’re doing right now that we’re going to end up collectively being really, really sorry for, letting our bedazzlement with technology run away with our values and our common sense is going to be high on the list.

@Jeruba They pay me just for being adorable. Just sayin’

@Jeruba that is what I am getting at. If we no longer have to “earn a living” in order to live what will we do in its place? Money would be obsolete if everything was provided. Or would it? Not everyone would be happy with having everything, they would want more. Would a black market develop to make things more challenging and dangerous for those who crave excitement?

@rojo, no, I don’t think we’re saying the same thing. You’re saying if we don’t have to earn a living, everything will be provided. By whom, the rich? I doubt it. I’m saying if we don’t get to earn a living, nothing will be provided. Instead we’ll be like wild creatures that spend all their waking hours scrounging for food.

Sure, we’ll have free time—just like all the destitute homeless folks who have nothing but free time. I don’t think that’s what we usually mean when we talk about leisure.

Honestly, money will become less and less important as technology disappears seamlessly into the background. Social status will be the new measure of stratification. At first only those who can afford it will essentially become immortal, later all of us will. “Success” will be highly subjective and we’ll start seeing groups of people evolve differently as they find and improve their talents. It’ll be a golden age.

The ex-pizza guy will run for president.

Jeruba is just being stupid. It says right in your Q that all the wants and needs are covered.
What comes to my mind is entertainment.
If we no longer need to work for our wants, would there no longer be entertainers? Would we become more demanding of quality of entertainment?
Would cat videos still be popular?
I think family would get a reboot. People could rediscover relationships. Travel would become bigger than ever.
Museums and national parks would maintain high visitor numbers.

Initially life would be that of a child, if survival did not necessitate devoting one’s time and effort. A child experiences an emotional response to those who nurture and will imitate their actions. The instinct one is born with to discover and understand the relative meanings of one’s discoveries will be unfettered. Angst present in the child’s emotional environment would be minimal, as its caregivers would be free from threats to their survival. Part of a family unit, the child’s activities will increasingly include responsibilities to self and others as part of a daily routine.

Maturation unaltered by automation, the stages of development from childhood to adulthood and the instinctive emotional bonding between individuals would continue, but without the adverse psychological consequences common in today’s society. Disease and unwanted pregnancy prevented by medical development unfettered by capitalistic concerns would free society from the need to control behavior. Sexuality would be unhampered by puritanical morality. Hedonism would not be motivated by the need to escape from psychological pain, but instead by the satisfaction derived from following one’s intellectual and emotional desires.

As individuals’ interests direct their principle pursuits, some may be drawn into the sciences, some into the arts and some into both. What is considered as mental illnesses today will for the most part be recognized as legitimate differences without social condemnation. Advances in communication will increase access to information, facilitate sharing discoveries and provide the technological means to enhance involvement in one’s practices. Life styles being independent of financial distinctions can create cliques of people who share interests, but would not produce classes.

Oops, I’ve been found out. Pay no attention to my comments. Better listen to @Patty_Melt instead.

I hate to think what could happen to society as a whole. I don’t think for one moment we would be revelling in having lots of “spare time”. There may be a honeymoon period, but ultimately I think we would feel “lost in space” somehow. To me it sounds like sheer hell, an utter nightmare, and one we could not wake from.

As I’ve said before, I live in a community that is practically as you described, because most people here have plenty of money to live and don’t work. They have fun every day, volunteer a lot, and it’s basically a give and take in the community. It feels extremely socialized, except that the city developer definitely benefits from the capitalistic system, and we do actually have to pay for most services, but the fun part we pay into the centralized system, basically a maintenance fee, much like a tax to a municipality, to maintain the infrastructure and administrative costs.

I think my city is an example of how a universal basic income can work.

I do think it’s really important people work, especially young people. Work gives people purpose, confidence, and most importantly independence. In my opinion it is impossible to understand the positive benefits, and the demands, of working, especially working full time, if someone has never done it.

I do think a shorter work week will be helpful to keep people employed, and early retirement, or more and more part time work available for new parents and people in their older years.

I would go on long canoe trips. Camping, and fishing, a lot. Travel, and explore this great planet, before the right wingers destroy it.