If you agree with Stafford Beer[1] then the purpose of civilisation is what it does. At the moment that doesn't look much like your list. Rather it seems to be about oppressing those at the bottom and enriching those at the top. The only thing that seems to reverse this trend is war.
Life without work is meaningless. Over the millennia we have done nothing but work. We were made to work.
I don't know if you've experienced not working without having to worry about money, but I have and it has a unique feeling of emptiness to it.
This is not me praising 9-5 office jobs, or work from home jobs, or any other specific job. They can all be hell in and of themselves, but the idea of abolishing work is just so laughable to me.
The moment that happens, a collective neurosis will overtake humanity the likes of which has never been seen before. We can only hope work will continue to be around as long as we are around, for our own sake.
I don't buy it. The cats and dogs seems to be pretty happy and they rarely work apart from the biological stuff that we do like growing body and repair cells and eating and all.
Yes, this is why people dread retirement. Society should implement some sort of Logan's Run style carrousel for the sad, miserable people that have retired and no longer get to have the pleasure of working.
I don’t know that that’s the core goal of civilization. Instead I think it is more about:
- survival and stability
- human flourishing
- progress and innovation
- continuity (of culture, values, etc.)