[toastmaster11]

I think the human need to feel useful, or to produce something is more sociological than a base human need.

When/if that becomes an issue, if social rejection was not a consequence of not being productive more people would be okay with simply participating in things for their own sake.

For example, I don’t play Stardew Valley because I want to be the most elite virtual farmer.

[1-hour-ago]

Maybe we're already seeing this. Seems like people would rather join a cult than not feel useful. Taking handouts from the man... er... machine and free time for hobbies probably isn't going to do it.

Feeling useful could turn out to be part of basic human dignity.

[OrsonSmelles]

But those people have generally marinated their entire lives in a background frame that usefulness == worth and (as a generalization) are under-equipped to generate meaning internally! It's not obvious to me that, say, the fifth generation after human labor becomes superfluous will be more vulnerable on this axis than we are now when there's tension and uncertainty about it.

(I'm sure plenty of people would happily jump in to question whether we'd make it five generations past that horizon, but that's not really the point I'm after here - let's assume we haven't Idiocracy'd/WALL-E'd ourselves to death.)