[marron]

In the end, a computer, robot, automated piece of machinery is always a tool employed by someone with will and imagination.

It allows you to multiply yourself.

People have infinite unmet needs, most of which they forego to meet the most necessary needs. When the cost of their met needs drops, thanks to automation, it becomes possible for them to pursue other unmet needs. As it becomes possible to build cars with ever fewer people, fewer people go into that business.

If people are stripped of their imagination and creative drive, you’ll have a socialist paradise where everyone sits waiting for someone to feed them and tell them what to do. If people continue to be creative and imaginative, then we will have an explosion of creation and exploration and invention.

It becomes important, as it already is, that people are inculcated with morality, creativity, and a work ethic. Yes, there will always be losers and people prepared to manipulate them. But that does not have to be whole story. There is a moral component; freed from the need to work to eat, would you sit or would you find something creative to do? Economics is creation and creative people.

[jjsheridan5]

People have infinite unmet needs.

If people have infinite unmet needs, than they are dead. But even if you meant to say "wants", then that ignores the decreasing utility that we get, the more we have. I would submit that, if almost every "product" or service could be delivered to you at zero cost, we will find that our level of demand for what we don't currently have will drop off the cliff.

To take a simple example, if I have 50 cars, and have the ability to have any number I want at zero cost, my incentive to work for a 51st car is zero.

In the end, a computer, robot, automated piece of machinery is always a tool employed by someone with will and imagination.

Actually, in the end, these things will be quite capable of doing what they do with no input, other than a spoken "demand." At that point, they aren't tools, since the cooperation between man and machine will be rendered unnecessary. At that point, they are servants, not tools.

If people are stripped of their imagination and creative drive, you’ll have a socialist paradise where everyone sits waiting for someone to feed them and tell them what to do.

It won't be a socialist paradise, since it is not the government taking what they have. And people will have no reason to wait for someone to feed them, since zero-cost machines will do that at zero marginal cost. As far as waiting for someone to tell them what to do, humanity is going to have no choice but to find purpose and value outside of "labor".

But that does not have to be whole story. There is a moral component; freed from the need to work to eat, would you sit or would you find something creative to do? Economics is creation and creative people.

Out of necessity, economics has historically been the primary source of creativity and value. But there is no law that I know of that says that economics is the only possible source of these things. Freed from the constraints of labor, the opportunity to pursue things of value increases, it doesn't inherently decrease. Economics may be "creation and creative people". But those people, freed from the practical constraints of having to labor to meet their needs and desires, will have their creative opportunities skyrocket. For those who cannot handle free time, and who would descend into things like substance abuse, are not going to be better off doing "make-work", especially given that it will be clear to everyone that what they do has no real value or purpose. Quite the opposite, "make-work" would strip them of the very things that a "work ethic" has historically provided.

[Chainmail]

“It allows you to multiply yourself”.

Uh, no: having “sex” with a machine pretty much guarantees you’ll never multiply.