In defense of the post-work future: Withdrawal and the ludic life

A basic income might be able to correct for the income-related losses of unemployment, but what about the meaning/purpose-related losses? For better or worse, many people derive meaning and fulfillment from the jobs they do; if their jobs are taken away, they lose this source of meaning. If we are about the enter an era of rampant job loss as a result of advances in technology, is there a danger that it will also be an era of rampant meaninglessness? In this chapter, I offer counsel against any such despair. I argue that we should encourage the withdrawal from the world of work into a more personal world of games. We should do this because (i) work is structurally bad and becoming worse as a result of technology, and (ii) a more ludic, game-like life would help us to attain a valuable form of human flourishing. I offer three arguments in support of this view and respond to critics who argue that withdrawing from the demands of work would result in a more selfish and impoverished form of existence.