I agree and that's what concerns me.
Currently, 10% of the population has an IQ of 80 or below. The US Army won't take them in the belief (probably rightly) that such people cannot be trained to perform any useful work.
As automation increases, there may be less need for burger flippers with IQs of 90 or below. Meanwhile the AI that we already have today performs a lot of white collar work -- a lot of legal work is handled by machines now, and the typical run-of-the-mill lawyer is outclassed.
One way or another I think we are heading to a society in which an increasing percentage of people have no significant labor to contribute. 10% today? 20% tomorrow? What happens when half the people have no labor to contribute? And how will the other half feel? The people who still "have to work"? That's going to be a problem.
The devil makes work for idle hands. Even if we had a bunch of automated farms and automated factories and we could send lots of "stuff" to people at home who no longer need to contribute, I figure those people will get bored and just start causing trouble. Kind of like Portland.
What's the solution? I don't know. But I think The Powers That Be have come to the conclusion that we have far too many people. Don't need 'em. We have machines now. So, what happens to the "excess people"? I don't know, but I haven't been vaccinated.
In the future everybody will make a living as ‘influencers’.
I long ago thought that a world where robots took care of our every need could actually make socialism a practical possibility. We can all relax and be provided for with perfect “equity”.
But the roots of its advocacy are envy and contempt for others. Even if we experienced identical material outcomes, there are still all sorts of things that we can be jealous of each other about or disdain each other for. And then there are all those idle hands that you speak of. Robots can’t fix any of that, regardless of how transcendentally brilliant they become.
“But I think The Powers That Be have come to the conclusion that we have far too many people. Don’t need ‘em. We have machines now. So, what happens to the “excess people”? I don’t know, but I haven’t been vaccinated. “
Hmm. Anti-vax as an IQ-driven selector for who survives. Interesting...