Work is something that keep us from doing something more interesting, or that prevents us from finding an activity having more purpose. There are a few lines of work-related endeavors which, by their nature, afford purpose as their primary reward. Most of us who have had to earn the money to give us a better-than-subsistence existence have been consumed by activity, the object of which was grounded in meaningless, capitalism (label that: for-profit). There appears to be a correlation between working and longevity. Even with the inner knowledge that their labors are essentially worthless, those who have been well-conditioned in the work-ethic tend to live longer. This must have some genetic and/or memetic basis. And so even if our walks of life are as divergent as our choices of leisure, the fact that many of us enthusiastically but into them transforms meaningless drivel into a raison d'etre.. If we believe we are important to those we love; to the nation in which we live; to a way of living; and to a shared consciousness, we are able to overlook the mundane aspects of wealth acquisition. I think automation, robotics and other influences will alter the paradigm. My notion is that rather than living longer lives in abundant leisure, we will die younger, be plagued boredom and a sense of unfulfilled lives. Hope I am wrong.

I first wanted to say that I recently discovered your show and have been listening to all of the old Podcasts. I really loved listening to John's grounded outlooks and how they balanced Ken's inquisitive force.

My comment/question for your guest is:

Jews have believed for thousands of years in the concept of the Shabbas which represents the infinite future time where humanity will have eliminated the need for work.
"Keeping" the Shabbas, for a Jew, is refraining from work in order to understand its purpose.

此外，亚当吃知识树果实的最初诅咒是劳动。

但就像犹太教中所有关于“未来世界”的概念一样，它们是无法企及的，只是随着时间的无限延伸，它们是可以接近的。

The amount of work required to sustain and advance humanity will go down, but never reach zero.

Does your guest think an end to work is attainable or just approachable?

The brute force of sledgehammer scheduling may deliver deadline timeliness, but it is not, a fortiori, conducive to productive outcomes: promises are as ephemeral as the emptiness in which they are made.

如果有一天，我们所知道的工作被废除了，我们将做些什么来赋予我们长寿和幸福生活所必需的决心和目标?关于这可能会是什么样子，已经有一些科幻小说的概念，但我看到的没有一个是合理的。必须有一些活动在智力和身体上都具有挑战性，否则厌倦很快就会取代新鲜;不活动，无论是在身体上还是在精神上都会导致衰老。我想，我们可以用最伟大的艺术和同样有远见的音乐来想象无聊。人类天生就有行动的需要——即使是逆境，在被克服时也能发挥出最佳状态。在我看来，一个没有工作的世界最容易等同于一个毫无价值的世界。我认为我们需要某种基因重组来为我们的损失和/或工作的需要做准备——这种重组必须是进化变化或某种人工智能增强的结果。更多的科幻小说吗?也许是这样，也许不是……

In the intro, Debra Satz said technology will wipe out "good middle class jobs like...cashiers." That sounded odd, so I checked.
Pew Research says middle class for a family of four is $46,960 to $140,900 per year ((https://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/in...)).
Indeed.com puts the national wage for a cashier at $10.75/hr, which works out to $21,500 a year. If both parents are cashiers, they still don't get to the lowest rung.
人们可以争论科技是否正在抹杀就业机会——在失业率达到创纪录水平之际，这是我们关注的一个有趣话题——但人们应该在辩论中运用正确的事实。

To the main point: The issue here doesn't seem to be work, but a sense of having purpose or meaning associated with this one life on Earth we know. To posit this can for most people only be fulfilled by work for pay is a sad thing, though perhaps evidence that in our time the Market has taken the place of religion as a central organizing principle.

Good research, Hardy. Nothing like keeping them honest. I would not have imagined that cashiering would have been considered middle-class either(unless, of course, we are including those in food and beverage who are making good tips. Sometimes they are borderline-middle-class; sometimes, not so much...)This is the interesting thing about information now. In an era of 'transparency' and scrutinous fact checking, it appears there are evermore people and groups who try to 'push the envelope' in one way or another. I suppose the fact that there are so many liars in important places, the compulsion to truth-say is losing impetus. Belief is not what it used to be, if, in fact, it ever was.