A Vision Of The Future: Forget Work, Embrace The Way Of The Earthworm, And Serve Your Society Through Endless Consumption

We are fast approaching a world where digital intelligence and robotic automation will make human-centric labour less economically viable, with the societal role of humans needing to be altered.

I am often chastised for my negativity. For my reporting on the current and future state of our society as though viewed through grey-tinted lenses, or whatever is deemed the opposite of rose-tinted. I, like many, have been plagued with an unfalteringly pessimistic view of the world. Through my eyes, the glass isn’t half full or half empty, it’s broken, jagged, and ready to slice my trachea. That being said, there are of course many things in the world to be thankful for, and even more things to look forward to, so I have attempted to set-out my vision for the future, sans the crippling negativity. For those who find even the promise of positivity too much to handle, please read my previous essay on the current state of our society, ‘Land Of No Hope, And Former Glory’, it should satisfy all pessimistic cravings.

It’s valuable to first spend time imagining how a developed nation should look when prioritising the true interests of its population, rather than the maximisation of spurious economic targets and trade quotas. Yes, a dreamy view of the future might see unemployment at 4% and annual GDP growth at 3%, but those targets are disconnected from the actual lives and well-being of individuals within society. In my mind, a near utopian vision of the future is one in which those who want to work can and are rewarded proportionately, and those who can’t work are supported non-begrudgingly. This is also a society where essentials are abundant and are not deemed to be reserved for just a small subset of the population. Housing, energy, food, and small indulgences should all be foundational within the lives of every member of a functioning developed nation. This isn’t to say every individual needs a Rolex and four cars, but it should be possible for all families to have suitable housing, the ability to heat said house in the winter, consistent meals, and the funds necessary to enjoy life, not just survive. However, I believe that in order to have any hope of bringing about that vision of the future, it will require a total re-evaluation of the roles that humans play within our current economic system.

Our world has undergone rapid, society-altering change many times over, each directly impacting a growing proportion of the population, and fundamentally transforming their role within the system. In the late 18th century, the First Industrial Revolution transformed production into large-scale factory systems, considerably boosting productivity and overall socioeconomic wealth. However, it also led to harsh working conditions, long hours, and exceptionally low pay, further highlighting the divide between what is good for the economy and what isn’t always good for the populace. This societal dissatisfaction drove the Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, which promised a new mechanical workforce that would free human workers from dangerous factories, with no loss in output or productivity. Yet, the economic need for ever-increasing production capabilities meant that the factories still existed, they just grew bigger and more sophisticated.

Despite this cycle of innovation, for many in society, the struggles of today feel just as real as those of an 18th-century worker, but without the cholera and candlelight. Even the more recent, and cleverly rebranded, Digital Revolution in the mid-20th century has once again struggled to satisfy the true needs of our community, despite modernising manufacturing and embracing the benefits of digital electronics. However, it is the cumulative effect of these successive industrial transformations that has set the stage for a radical new paradigm. The advent of AI, automation, and advanced robotics is currently unlocking a new, and potentially final, purpose for humans. We may be on the cusp of entering a time in which a life of work may no longer be the default path, with a life of consumption instead being more economically useful.

In many developed nations, a large swathe of the population currently contributes more positive economic impact through their individual consumption habits than from the primary output of their employment. In essence, the time we spend sending emails, attending meetings, and engaging in polite, meaningless conversations with colleagues is actually far less economically valuable than evenings spent on Shein or at the pub. For those work purists who believe that their role is detrimental to the day-to-day operations of our world, that may still be true, however for the vast majority of us, we no longer need to pretend that this is the case. We’re most valuable to our economy as consumers, and our job is a charade to facilitate that consumption. We’re like children performing utterly useless weekly chores, and whose corresponding pocket money exists merely to maintain the illusion of autonomy, allowing them to buy goods that they would have received anyway. This is the state of our economy today, and with a fourth industrial revolution on the horizon, the tide is not turning, so our lack of economic utility will only get more pronounced.

In a developed nation where work has now become non-essential for a sizeable subset of the population, humans should begin to model the behaviour of earthworms, rather than traditional economic units. Within an ecosystem, earthworms aren't producers in a traditional sense or agents of change within the natural order. Instead, the role of an earthworm is to consume and redistribute. They feed on organic matter, excrete their nutrient-filled waste, and churn the soil so that it becomes revitalised, fertile, and ready for growth. Although an earthworm may want to take a more active role in the management of the ecosystem, and is more than welcome to commute to its desired place of churning, its true value comes from pure consumption. This, too, can be the job of humans.

In a world where digital intelligence can replace a growing number of roles, and automation makes human-centric labour less economically efficient, our true value comes from our exceptional consumption skills. Consumption also has the benefit of being a pleasurable pursuit that many would happily engage in near-endlessly for their entire life. It isn’t marred by the restraints and fatigue of traditional work, and instead takes the form of a voluntary pursuit. Why then should we as a society be preoccupied with trying to generate as many economically irrelevant roles for an endless stream of new employees entering the workforce, when instead our economy could function just as well, if not better, with a burgeoning consumption class. For a growing proportion of the population, their time could be better occupied at malls, restaurants, online shopping, and absorbing media. To achieve this, we will need to remove the cultural stigma that would currently hinder this new consumption class and instead appreciate the overall importance of this role within an advanced economy.

There are of course endless caveats to this essay that should be addressed, from what developments will be needed to reach this state, how will income be distributed, how do you reward those who want to work, how do you reward those who still need to work, will this degrade human purpose, and is this truly what a developed economy looks like. I am certainly keen to address all of these points in more detail, and I am working on an extended piece that better articulates the nuances that are needed when covering a topic as radical, and potentially ludicrous, as this. For the sake of brevity, I have aimed to give a flavour of how our society could be reimagined with work no longer the central tenet of our lives, and how our roles as humans could shift in a way that many wouldn’t expect. In a future piece, I will attempt to outline the fundamentals of this concept in more detail, but for now, I’m off to fulfil my societal duty and buy a new iPad.