While AI promises an "age of abundance," Professor Russell has asked hundreds of experts—from AI researchers to economists and sci-fi writers—to describe what a fulfilling human life looks like with no work. No one can. This failure of imagination suggests the real challenge isn't economic but a profound crisis of purpose, meaning, and human identity.

Extreme online subcultures, however small, function as 'existence proofs.' They demonstrate what is possible when a generation is severed from historical context and tradition, connected only by algorithms and pornography. They are a warning sign of the potential outcomes of our current digital environment.

Assuming AI's productivity gains create an economic safety net for displaced workers, the true challenge becomes existential. The most difficult problem to solve is how society helps individuals derive meaning and purpose when their traditional roles are automated.

When AI handles material needs, the traditional status game of wealth accumulation will lose its meaning. Humans will instead compete for status in non-productive domains like athletics, video games, or curating collections. These niche communities will become the new arenas for finding meaning and social hierarchy.

A key psychological parallel between cults and fervent belief systems like the pursuit of AGI is the feeling they provide. Members feel a sense of awe and wonder, believing they are among a select few who have discovered a profound, world-altering secret that others have not yet grasped.

Humans have a "God-shaped hole"—a fundamental need for shared values and community, historically filled by religion. As formal religion wanes, the internet facilitates the creation of new tribes. These online groups provide belonging but are often pathological and based on grievance.

The next wave of social movements will be AI-enhanced. By leveraging AI to craft hyper-personalized and persuasive narratives, new cults, religions, or political ideologies can organize and spread faster than anything seen before. These movements could even be initiated and run by AI.

While Universal Basic Income (UBI) might solve the economic fallout from AI-induced job loss, Ariel Poler is more concerned with the resulting existential crisis. For most people, jobs provide identity, structure, and meaning. The challenge isn't just funding people's lives, but finding productive ways for them to spend their free time.

The most dangerous long-term impact of AI is not economic unemployment, but the stripping away of human meaning and purpose. As AI masters every valuable skill, it will disrupt the core human algorithm of contributing to the group, leading to a collective psychological crisis and societal decay.