[bonniemuffin]

Instead of telling people to play video games or go kayaking, I hope we can ask them to go play checkers with the elderly, read to children, hold hands with dying people in hospice, and mentor the formerly-incarcerated. These are "jobs" that I would argue robots cannot meaningfully fill, but which society would benefit from a lot more of.

[JimtheCoder]

"I hope we can ask them to go play checkers with the elderly, read to children, hold hands with dying people in hospice, and mentor the formerly-incarcerated."

I think a large portion would choose video games over this...

[fugalfervor]

What about "video games with the elderly, video games with children, video games with dying people in hospice, and mentor the formerly-incarcerated in speedrunning"?

[peteradio]

How bout play video games with elderly hospice patients while holding hands with a convicted pedophile who is holding hands with a racist who is holding hands with a child who is playing video games with their other hand all on one big sofa while on a rocketship to the moon. But wait ... that's no moon!

[bryanlarsen]

Those who "play checkers with the elderly, read to children, hold hands with dying people in hospice" will likely have more successful encounters with the opposite sex than those who choose video games.

[bonniemuffin]

If they don't want to, that's fine with me. Just offering some options for people (like me) who still want a meaningful way to contribute to society, in a world where robots do most of our current jobs.

[dragonwriter]

Yes, a large portion of the elderly, children, and formerly incarcerated (maybe less the dying in hospice) would choose video games as the shared activity. That’s okay, too.

[Arrath]

Maybe they would, and its their own prerogative as to how they wish to spend their time.

For myself I both enjoy video games, and enjoyed/felt fulfilled by my time volunteering with an elementary school program to assist children who were having trouble learning to read at the same pace as their peers.

[banannaise]

Yeah, for awhile. We're all miles beyond burned out, and we need some downtime to recover before we're ready to pour a lot of energy into anything.

[chongli]

which society would benefit from a lot more of

Definitely! I’ve spent a good amount of time volunteering with kids, teaching them to read and helping them with homework.

But demographics are against us on this one. Children and elderly people are very much in the minority on any population distribution plot. I have personally been in situations where the number of adult volunteers greatly outnumbered the kids they were there to work with. It’s funny and a bit awkward but you get through it, usually by shifting over to board games and other large group activities.

It would be a totally different story if everyone was looking to do this stuff. A hundred volunteers with half a dozen kids or elderly folks is just not going to work. Most will be sent home.

I think it’s the same story with any group who might benefit from this. It could work if we doubled or tripled the number of people available to help out, but 10x or 20x (or more) would be unworkable.

You might say that a large number of people already volunteer for this work, but a handful of hours per week. There’s no way we could absorb millions of new volunteers for 40 hours per week each, that would be excessive.

The last thing I would add is that there are tons of people who are simply unsuitable for this kind of care work. They’re naturally disagreeable people. They may also be restless and easily bored. They would much rather be outside working or messing around.

[bonniemuffin]

I don't anticipate everyone wanting to do this, and I definitely don't picture anyone wanting to do "work" for 40 hours a week in a world where work is optional. I would think some people will want to do a few hours a week of something in the category I'm describing, and many people will elect other forms of meaning in their life (maybe they love whittling driftwood or golfing or just want to watch AI-generated movies all day. That's fine.) The whole point is we'll have options, so there will be some supply/demand curve for meaningful human interaction that will find equilibrium.

[FLT8]

Right, or plant trees, clean up trash from the creeks rivers or oceans, take on foster kids and really invest time in giving them the best start possible, help refugees integrate into society, work on creating a sense of community with your neighbours, fix or repurpose trash to help reduce landfill, prioritise your health, start walking or cycling places rather than driving even if it takes longer (since time is now something you have lots of), create art, basically deal with some of the negative externalities and/or undervalued services that modern capitalism addresses so poorly.. and hopefully in the process create a life that is fulfilling and enjoyable for yourself and others.