Team Human The Joy of Becoming Worthless…except to each other
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Nov 12, 2025 Explore the radical idea that the end of employment could lead to new avenues for creativity and collaboration. The discussion delves into how AI might displace jobs and what that means for human consumption. Can we shift from a focus on profit to nurturing community and local economies? The conversation highlights the urgency of reclaiming shared resources over individual accumulation. Discover practical models of cooperative living that promote mutual aid and joy in a world where human connections take precedence over artificial constructs.
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AI As Worker And Consumer
- Douglas Rushkoff argues AI is poised to replace many administrative and office jobs, shifting labor to artificial agents.
- He suggests tech owners may plan economies where AIs both work and consume, buying energy and processing from companies.
Capitalism's Abstraction Spiral
- Rushkoff describes capitalism as successive layers of abstraction that moved value away from people and places.
- He warns that AI could let elites abandon the real economy and live entirely within digital abstractions.
How Employment Was Invented
- Rushkoff recounts how medieval Europeans worked only two or three days weekly before chartered monopolies forced people into wage labor.
- He uses this history to show employment was designed to prevent widespread small-business prosperity.