Jobs are not the same as work.
Employment is a societal structure we use to accomplish ‘important’ work. We have certain things we want to get done to support a particular culture, and so we consider some things ‘jobs’ and in order to make sure someone does them, we pay people. And then we make other things cost money so that we create a reason for people to want, and usually need, to be paid.
But it’s not strictly necessary.
Work is necessary. Jobs are societally and culturally-defined.
Work is innate to who we are and how we function. If we didn’t have jobs to go to, we would still work. Work is an activity with a purpose - a goal - and usually we equate it with being forced on us, or difficult, or both.
But there are many situations in which we choose to work on something that’s enjoyable, or self-imposed, or both. These are things we tend to call hobbies, though even here they can still earn us money - like selling furniture you made, or provide material benefit - like gardening.
If I did not have to worry about employment, (or cleaning my house, because robots would be doing that), there is a lot of work I would do. For example, I can imagine spending my time trying to get the best ever pictures of wildlife. Day after day I would have to learn and practice, learn and practice. Sometimes it would be wet and miserable. Sometimes I will take very bad shots, and it would all suck. Work. But then I would get better and share great pictures with the world. Value. Not necessarily monetary value. Definitely human value though.
I can also imagine building things, growing things, learning instruments, writing more, fixing stuff, making art or clothing.
If robots designed cars, built our cars, fixed our cars, then cars didn’t require drivers, and we didn’t even need to own cars because they would show up whenever we needed them, I’m pretty sure all those designers, engineers, factory-workers, drivers, mechanics etc would still work, because it’s human nature. Perhaps it would be similar design or mechanical work or completely different work.
The societal challenge we need to solve when A.I. and robots take our jobs is: how do we pay people or create a different system to value work and live well?
Instead of worrying about whether there will be specific jobs, perhaps we should think about a system that allows us to work more creatively and with even more benefit to ourselves and each other?
Instead of fearing the robots, what if we leaned in and embraced the chance to redefine work, value, benefit…..money.
Proactively.
We hear this quite often about robotics and our answer is the same. Robots can only do jobs that are repetitive and often those jobs are dangerous, not a good fit for people... a great fit for a robot. Let the robots do those things and open up the people's time to do things the robots can't do!