In an episode of the Jetsons, George Jetson once complained about his heavy workload. It was a line delivered both for laughs and a sense of excitement towards the future of work. His job was to push a button for one hour, twice a week.
Our utopian vision of the future, like the Jetsons, has always drawn images of more tech and less work.
More time for our family, friends, and to pursue our passions. But is this what we truly want? Could we as a society handle a shift towards greater leisure time? At a juncture where many leading voices in Silicon Valley are arguing for a Universal Basic Income to handle a future without adequate levels of full-time employment, it begs the question of whether our culture could adjust to having less work and more leisure.“Intellectually, I believe this is something Americans want,” states Avi Reichental, when I pose the question to him as to whether we desire tech to expand our leisure time. Reichental is the founder and chairman of XponentialWorks™, noted for his insight regarding the convergence of technological trends. He is a futurist who is on the XPRIZE Foundation Innovation Board, and regularly speaks about where society is headed. “We find ourselves still in design with human nature,” Reichental continues, “desiring ubiquitous productivity and easier access to connection.”
[Avi Reichental, founder and chairman of XponentialWorks™]
The great irony of our technological advance is that many of us, in 2017, find ourselves completely overworked. Should we have more free time today? This runs counter to how we generally frame the stated purpose of technological advance–to make our lives easier. Our careers, however, are not merely done to receive a paycheck but also provide a sense of purpose and identity. One concern regarding the concept of Universal Basic Income is that it may not fully take into consideration the human condition regarding…
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