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That is indeed the likely scenario. However, I’m curious what your alternative is for a future where there is zero economic demand for the contributions most people are capable of making to the economy.

This is likely to be a society where enormous amounts of “stuff” is produced with very little human input.

Do those few people who are still productive obtain automatic title to everything that is produced?

Is there any way to prevent this without shutting down innovation, which would of course require a totalitarian system?

I’m a huge fan of the free market, which has had a darn good run of several centuries. But it’s perhaps best known for its ability at “creative destruction.”

I’m beginning to suspect that its last act of creative destruction will be self-destruction.

I’m a huge fan of the free market, which has had a darn good run of several centuries. But it’s perhaps best known for its ability at “creative destruction.”

I’m beginning to suspect that its last act of creative destruction will be self-destruction.

You and me both. This is a question I have long pondered, but I have mostly addressed my speculation to the issue of robot killing machines.

We are going to reach a point where they can build humanoid robots which will be incredibly lethal. They will have the speed and reflexes to shoot you a millisecond after your head has emerged from around a corner. Imagine the fastest gun in the west with utterly unfailing accuracy.

No human soldier would be able to stand against such a thing on an equal basis, and when the totalitarians don't have to worry about human ethics in their super soldiers, things could get very ugly indeed.

I would like to think that there will be emerging markets in the service industry. But, from what I have seen where I live that can also be an economically driven downward spiral. As our housing market collapsed and was made worse by local politicians demanding more business restrictions and limited growth ordinances, the number of plumbers, painters, roofers and especially landscapers seemed to multiply.

So far most of them seem to be busy and I've not heard that wages are dropping as I would normally expect with increased competition. Although I have noticed some professional building contractors have gone down and the category of "handymen" has grown.

With manufacturing trending more towards robotic implementation, I first thought that there would be a growing segment of warehousing and distribution. But, Amazon seems to be single handedly proving that ain't so.

More and more it's looking like the only tasks robots can't advance quickly at are picking vegetable can fruit crops and senior comfort and hospice care. Another one might be personal trainers.