Prior to the Industrial Age, a low-I.Q. individual was still able to "get a job," say, working a treadmill to irrigate a field - i.e., performing a task that could have just as easily been performed by an animal.
In the Modern Age, it is nigh impossible to find gainful employment for such intellectually limited individuals. There are, after all, only so many cushy govt. jobs to go around! [Heh-heh!]
It is, of course, still possible to create "make-work" for them, as long as they are under supervision; I'm not disputing the social benefit and positive humanitarian effect of maintaining such programs to give low-I.Q. people the "illusion" of gainful employment, but I assume that we are agreed that it would be an obscenity if such jobs became the norm for vast swathes of our population.
I agree with your thesis statement: Even after the advent of A.I., there will still be "jobs" out there for highly qualified individuals. But your statement lacks the all-important quantifier: for the increasingly tiny sliver of highly qualified individuals.
How can a society with any self-respect continue when only, say, 10% of its members are performing actual work - and the rest are, essentially, useless "drones?"
The loss of human agency, the social stratification caused by rampant automation, and the psychological impact of being rendered obsolete by technology would have an immense impact upon the human species. (All discussed quite accurately by the prescient science-fiction novel Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in 1952!)
Regards,
I think the number of USA self-employed individuals, families, and colleagues, is going to increase dramatically over the next ten years.
AI will deliver instant basic competence in accounting, finance, hiring, firing, legal, government regulations, contracts, taxes, insurance, product pricing...you name it.
“....How can a society with any self-respect continue when only, say, 10% of its members are performing actual work - and the rest are, essentially, useless “drones?......”
Good points, but also need to consider the population collapse occurring in Japan, China, the US (excluding immigration), Russia (including war & alcohol related deaths) and other major developed countries. In those countries that have money and can afford to pay good salaries, there will be the need (& demand) to perform “actual work.” Will the demand in those countries be enough to support those with skills in those populations? I don’t know. But I am sure that AI will not replace all human labor.