People have dreamt for many years about a world without work. In an essay in 1891, Oscar Wilde imagined a future where, “just as trees grow while the country gentleman is asleep, so while humanity will be amusing itself, or enjoying cultivated leisure — which, and not labour, is the aim of man — or making beautiful things, or reading beautiful things, or simply contemplating the world with admiration and delight, machinery will be doing all the necessary and unpleasant work”. This year, rapid developments in artificial intelligence have reignited questions about whether machines might one day replace the need for human labour entirely. I am sceptical, not least because we humans have a remarkable ability to make work for ourselves. But let’s suppose for a moment that technological progress did usher in an age of leisure. Would we actually be able to cope with it?
多年來，人們一直夢寐以求一個沒有工作的世界。奧斯卡•王爾德(Oscar Wilde)在1891年的一篇散文中想像了這樣一種未來：「就像樹木在生長，而鄉村紳士卻在休憩中，因此當人類在自得其樂、享受文雅的閒暇（人類的目標是它而不是勞動）、創造美麗的事物、閱讀美好的東西，或僅僅是懷著讚美和喜悅沉思這個世界時，機器就會在做一切必需的和令人不快的工作。」