New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argues the root of modern anxiety isn't just policy, but a growing sense that digital culture and AI are making humans obsolete. This feeling fuels unhappiness, loneliness, and demographic decline, which in turn manifests as political polarization.
Ross Douthat refutes the idea of a leisured aristocracy as a model for a post-work world. He argues they were often busy managing estates, fighting wars, and engaging in a constant struggle to prevent decadence, suggesting that a life of pure, unstructured leisure is inherently unstable and difficult for humans to maintain.
Ross Douthat points to a surprising social trend as a warning for a future of abundance. Despite unprecedented freedom, people are having less sex and forming fewer relationships. This suggests that addictive digital entertainment can overpower even fundamental human drives, a bleak indicator for a society with unlimited leisure.
Sam Harris highlights a key paradox: even if AI achieves its utopian potential by eliminating drudgery without catastrophic downsides, it could still destroy human purpose, solidarity, and culture. The absence of necessary struggle could make life harder, not easier, for most people to live.
The "Star Trek" model of a post-scarcity utopia reveals a critical flaw in such visions: they focus on elite explorers, not the average citizen. This narrative choice conveniently sidesteps the fundamental question of how a mass population would find meaning and spend their days in a world without want or the necessity of work.
Sam Harris challenges the fear that Universal Basic Income (UBI) would create mass purposelessness by pointing to historical aristocracies. He argues this large population, who didn't have to work, still managed to find meaning and live recognizably happy lives, serving as a real-world test case for a leisured society.