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[qwertyuiopas]

Obviously, some little-known merely average laptop manufacturer will create an install utility that will copy those little settings off your old one, and that little feature alone will drag them to the top of the market. Until the other major companies implement their own versions.

[Nicpon]

"Pianola" by Kurt Vonnegut is book about this.

[Zironic]

Also, if 99-100% of the workforce is cut due to automation, I see no problem.  At that point haven't we progressed beyond the need for work?  The same amount of man-hours is being put into it, but the workers no longer need to be paid.  Couldn't we just exploit the machines and not worry about being unemployed?

People always whine about immigrants taking their jobs, but what if that immigrant didn't need to eat or sleep, and gave you his salary every week?  Would people still complain?

Most jobs right now could be handled by a computer or an automated system. Humans have a natural urge to work or do something productive. It's evolutionary. Jobs will always exist, but how they function is completely different.

In a million years, We will probably still have people washing windows on the outside of buildings (which contain giant machines that crunch numbers all day endlessly) on scaffolding, who commute to work using alternate dimensions and can speaking in a combination of multi variable calculus and binary. They'll come home from work to their space ships that orbit the center of the universe. They'll pull out a space joint and smoke to unwind. Turn on their vision screens and watch the origins of life in the 7th universe: the third series (This time, the planet orbits a red giant!). Their life spans will be indefinite. They'll just wash windows until heat death.

[Earthquake Damage]

They'll come home from work to their space ships that orbit the center of the universe.

Nitpick:  By all appearances, there is no such thing.

That is all.

[Armok]

That sounds like the result of a FoF worse than a papercliper...

[Andir]

Why would you pay someone to clean your windows when you have the iRobot Windba that automatically washes your windows every night?

[MrWiggles]

Well becuase human labor will became scarce, then it'll be an attractive quality.

[Earthquake Damage]

Well becuase human labor will became scarce, then it'll be an attractive quality.

Obsolete tools become scarce but remain unattractive.  PCs from 1985 are much less desirable than 2005 PCs.  Consequently they are usually dirt cheap.  The exception is when you try to buy them from a collector.  But collectors form a strange niche market that behaves unlike ordinary markets.

[MrWiggles]

Well becuase human labor will became scarce, then it'll be an attractive quality.

Obsolete tools become scarce but remain unattractive.  PCs from 1985 are much less desirable than 2005 PCs.  Consequently they are usually dirt cheap.  The exception is when you try to buy them from a collector.  But collectors form a strange niche market that behaves unlike ordinary markets.

No you're looking at wrong. Human labor is not an obsolete tool, but perceive personability and quality, and human touch that makes it an attractive quality, in similar tone to what 'hand craft' is today.

[Earthquake Damage]

Oh, you're talking about the desire for authenticity (whatever that means ).

[Servant Corps]

I don't even know if this is a thing that economists have already thought through.

Marx did! I believe he said that would lead to Communist revolutions, but I'm not  Marxist, so I wouldn't know.

There is something called "full unemplyoment"; going below this level would mean your economy is overheating and this can lead to increased inflation. Full unemployment is different for every nation, and is usually effected by structural unemployment (unemployment that is not affected by the economic cyle but is inherent in a nation's structure). There is also seasonal unemployment (some jobs exist during certain seasons) and some other type of unemployment which is basically "in-between jobs".

However, the 'full unemployment' level should be fairly low-ish figure for the US, let's say, 2%. So it shouldn't be too much to worry about. Certainly less of a doomsday figure than the 10% currently.

[Zironic]

What I am saying is, these futuristic men who can literally move themselves effortlessly through space to the center of the start of the universe (Meaning they know momentum and origin etc..) and they'll wash windows themselves because their bored and having a job or work is ingrained into our genetics.

[Soadreqm]

What I am saying is, these futuristic men who can literally move themselves effortlessly through space to the center of the start of the universe (Meaning they know momentum and origin etc..) and they'll wash windows themselves because their bored and having a job or work is ingrained into our genetics.

Oh, we'll have transcended our base human desires long before that. The true humans are energy beings existing outside time and space. The window washers are those left behind, those who refused to abandon what they saw as their humanity; maintaining the rotting precursor machinery with no clue how it truly works; their entire civilization spiraling slowly towards doom as more and more technology is lost.

[qwertyuiopas]

There would be others, who desire to understand how it works, so would either study it, or try to develop their own to imitate it.

Why wash windows when you can be a historian? Especially since the past contains lost knowledge!

[MrWiggles]

There would be others, who desire to understand how it works, so would either study it, or try to develop their own to imitate it.

Why wash windows when you can be a historian? Especially since the past contains lost knowledge!

I guess the counter question is; Why not?

In this world, there probably wouldnt be different value of a job, as there is now, as it would all be optional or close to optional.