The question
What will people do all day?
Science fiction has spent a century imagining machines that can do the work. It has spent far less time on the part that follows — the ordinary Tuesday afternoon of a person who is no longer needed.
47 catalogued answers · 1895–2022 · hover a mark
The genre is full of artificial minds and nearly empty of artificial economies. How empty depends entirely on who compiled the list: across two audited lists the answer rate runs from 12% to 29%. Lists ranked by popularity sit at the bottom of that range, averaging 12%; lists somebody chose average 29%. Popularity does not scatter the answers so much as select against them. Compare the audits →
The eight answers
Every work here lands in one of these. The striking thing is how many authors, having removed material scarcity, immediately invent a replacement.
Enforced idleness
Everything is provided, so nothing is left to do — and that turns out to be unbearable.
NEW CURRENCYManufactured scarcity
The abundance is real, so a new scarcity gets invented to compete over.
GOOD PRPlay as vocation
Work becomes hobby, and the serious people go looking for risk on purpose.
SURPLUSObsolescence
The work goes, and standing goes with it.
STILL OURSCare work persists
The tasks that survive are the ones that cannot be hurried.
SEE OWNERCapital captures it
Nothing is abolished. The gains are simply owned by someone.
POSTEDAllocated labour
A system decides what you will do, and people comply — sometimes willingly.
INTERNALISEDAssigned meaning
A system hands you a purpose, and it is sufficient.