I agree Denis, noting that we will see a blend of recorded/ remote teaching, machine-learning personalized teaching, and in-person teaching. The first two will be immensely valuable, but are absolutely not a substitute for someone who can truly understand a person, and most importantly motivate them to learn and grow. Learning is, of course, at the heart of our future.

Thanks David, good points. You’re probably right that if remunerative work exists it won’t always be done for love. But if machine capabilities are that good, they will have taken all the work people don’t want to do, the markets will be mainly for human-centered work – which far more people will be happy to do, even if they wouldn’t choose to do it for nothing.

You say that in a world where machines are better than people at all types of work, people will find employment only if the work in question fulfills two criteria: people want to do it, and people or organizations are prepared to pay for that work to be done. But people have always done work the don’t especially want to do–in exchange for something they do want. There is no reason this will change in a society suffused with automation. And automation is never free. Designing, building, deploying, and maintaining machines costs money.

Even in a highly automated world, only work that someone is willing to pay for gets done. That is why, according to one estimate, 46% of the world people get paid to do today could be automated by currently available technologies–but isn’t.