Thoughts on the future in 2022

Mark McIlroy



I predict that within 50 years all white-collar jobs will be done by Artificial Intelligence systems and all manual jobs will be done by robots.

This could have two possible outcomes.


1. Full employment

150 years ago 75% of the population lived on farms growing food. Now that percentage is around 2%. Are the other 98% unemployed?

No, new products and services were created and the unemployment rate is at a 50-year low of around 3%.



2. A leisure society

If this happens society may decide that there is no need for human beings to work. Governments may pay free wages that allow everyone to live a life of leisure.

Leisure societies have existed before. For example, the roman empire, which was based on military conquest and collecting taxes which allowed the leaders to live a life of leisure.