Automation and, to some extent, AI, supposedly liberate humans from mind-numbing repetitive tasks and free us to do more creative and challenging work. But we may be losing something when we lose repetition. Repetition in the form of mantras or prayer beads can be a pathway to meditation. For thousands of years, humans have been engaged in repetitive labor, whether in agriculture, crafts or even the modern assembly line. One of the oldest forms of manufacturing, weaving, is an exercise in repetition. Perhaps such repetition creates a meditative state that calms the soul. True, there are probably people at the far end of the extrovert scale who are miserable if forced into any form of focused, repetitive work. But for others, repetitive tasks may help them “find their groove.”
One of the ironies is that when industrialization and mechanization first started, it led to mind-numbing repetitive tasks. Because of the assembly line, with each worker performing one single type of task over and over again.
I suppose there may be something to this ...but then again, I don't need employment to find my zen zone I get when I'm cutting wood or turning a wrench or etc. I actually do a lot more of that in my off time- fixing cars, chopping firewood, stuff like that. And it is quite cathartic and seems similar to how other people describe meditation (as I've never actively tried to 'meditate' myself). And I think there is certainly some aspect of appreciation for the fact that when I'm doing this in my off time, its for me, not the company. And while the company I work for has treated me well, and I do get some enjoyment in certain tasks I get paid to do (less and less these days as I get more heavily focussed on management...) I have no illusions that its because its making more off me than I'm making off it, and that is always somewhere in the back of my mind regardless how much I may anjoy whatever I'm doing. But I think the greater danger of automation (beyond leaving people in poverty and unemployed of course) is in making humans obsolete. What do you think the owners and administrators of the machinery are going to do with their cheap goods? Give them away to the now useless 8 billion humans? I think its far more likely the movers and shakers of industry are going to resent the masses of 'useless eaters' (their words, not mine) and they'll be in the perfect position to kill us off with simple resource scarcity. I see no reason why they wouldn't ...at least try to do that. And even if they do decide to be nice and just stash us away in microapartments, playing comupter games and eating processed nutrient pellets ...thats not going to be an enjoyable life. People need a purpose, even if the purpose is pulling a lever for 40 hours a week (though certainly there are way better purposes...). So I guess I've talked myself back around to agreeing with you, at least in general.
