Work is an unavoidable necessity. The promise of autonomous and intelligent systems (A/IS) challenges this central fact of human existence. The anxieties this arouses are puzzling. We ought to be relieved by the prospect of being freed of degrading and precarious work which risks turning each of us into what Karl Marx called a ‘crippled monstrosity’. Instead, we are fearful, not simply of a world without work, but one where there is no point to our human contribution. Life reduced to hobbies and entertainment does not seem worthwhile. In other words, we want a world which can keep creating meaningful work.

Being frightened by the prospect of not having anything to do which really matters is neither self-indulgent nor irrational. When no-one calls upon our labour for a serious purpose, we face the terrifying prospect of being rendered socially invisible, reduced to what Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben called ‘bare life’, and therefore no longer worthy of anyone’s consideration. In other words, ‘the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared with the misery of not being exploited at all’, said economist Joan Robinson, and she was right. If work – and especially meaningful work - disappears, whole populations fall under the radar.