A Prediction That Feels Like Science Fiction
Roman Yampolskiy, a Russian-American computer scientist who has spent years warning about the risks of artificial intelligence, recently made a shocking claim: by the early 2030s, almost all jobs might be gone. Not half, not two-thirds — but ninety-nine percent.
He believes machines will soon match human intelligence in every field. At first they’ll take over office work and software, then factories, transport, even the care professions. By 2030, he says, both digital and physical labor could be entirely automated.
Whether the number is exaggerated doesn’t matter. Even if it’s “only” half of all jobs, the shock would be enormous. So let us take his claim seriously and ask: what happens to society when almost nobody is needed for work anymore?
The Old Loop of Work and Consumption
For two centuries, industrial societies have turned in a loop. People worked. Their wages gave them money to buy goods. That spending created demand. Demand kept factories and shops alive, which created more work.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw that this loop was fragile: if wages fell, demand would dry up and capitalism would choke on its own abundance. John Maynard Keynes later made the same point: without mass consumption, economies grind to a halt.
But there was something even deeper hidden in this loop: Anerkennung.
- A job gave people proof that they mattered.
- Consumption let them show the world who they were.
- The loop fed not only bodies but also identities.
The Shock of Automation
Now imagine the loop breaking. Factories run without workers. Offices need no clerks. Trucks and taxis drive themselves. Even creative professions are replaced by AI systems that can compose music, write essays, or design houses.
Goods keep flowing, maybe even more cheaply than before. But wages vanish. Without wages, the engine of demand sputters. Governments step in, handing out money or digital credits — “universal basic income,” “automation dividends,” whatever name sticks.
On paper, people can still survive. They can still buy food, pay rent, maybe even stream entertainment. Yet something crucial is lost: the sense that their contribution matters. Recognition drains away.
Recognition Starvation
Humans don’t collapse only when they lack bread. They collapse when they feel invisible. Work, however tedious, provided recognition: a boss’s nod, a payday, a customer’s thanks. Consumption did the same: new clothes, a new phone, a sense of belonging.
Without these, millions may feel starved of meaning. Some will seek recognition in extreme politics. Others will dive into digital illusions — AI companions, algorithmic fame. Some may give up altogether.
This is the true danger in Yampolskiy’s prediction: not just unemployment, but a recognition apocalypse.
Can Governments Survive?
Suppose his forecast comes true. Can governments keep people alive without work?
Today, most taxes come from wages and consumption. With unemployment at ninety-nine percent, those streams dry up. The only remaining source is automation rents — the profits of companies that own the robots, the AI models, the energy grids, the patents.
To survive, governments must capture part of this wealth. They could:
- Levy taxes on profits from automation.
- Own public stakes in major AI and robotic firms, turning citizens into shareholders.
- Charge rents on land, energy, and natural resources that cannot be automated away.
With these revenues, governments could pay every citizen an unconditional income — not humiliating welfare, but a dividend of citizenship. That would keep people fed, housed, and clothed.
But would it keep them recognized?
The Consumption Gap
Even if everyone receives an income, another problem appears. Machines can produce far more than people can possibly consume. If incomes are too low, warehouses overflow with goods nobody can afford. If incomes cover only basic survival, markets split: gluts of luxury goods, scarcity of land and housing.
This is a new version of the old Marxist crisis: abundance without buyers.
But here lies the deeper revelation. Consumption was never the final goal. It was only a mask for recognition. People did not really want more things; they wanted to matter more.
All You Need Is Less
This is where Eidoism speaks. If automation floods the world with goods, the lesson is not to consume more but to understand what we truly need.
“All you need is less” does not mean poverty or austerity. It means learning that recognition cannot be bought endlessly. It means shifting from owning to belonging, from consuming to creating, from endless growth to meaningful awareness.
Eidoism proposes a new loop:
- Awareness of what is truly needed.
- Living with essentials rather than surpluses.
- Recognition found in relationships, communities, and creative acts.
- Contribution measured in meaning, not in wages or purchases.
Three Futures
From this turning point, three paths unfold:
- Oligarchy: corporations keep the machine profits; governments fail to tax; citizens receive crumbs. Recognition starvation fuels unrest and extremism.
- Authoritarianism: states nationalize production, ration survival through digital coupons, and demand loyalty as the only recognition.
- Socialization of Automation: societies capture machine wealth through taxes and public ownership, distribute dividends to all, and build new recognition cultures in art, science, and community.
Only the last path is stable. And only it speaks to the real human hunger: recognition.
The Time of Eidoism
Seen through this lens, Yampolskiy’s prediction is not just a warning. It is a wake-up call.
When work vanishes, when consumption gluts, society can no longer hide behind the old illusions. The truth becomes obvious: it was never wages or goods that mattered. It was always recognition.
If we cling to the old loop, the crisis will drown us in overproduction, frustration, and rage. But if we accept the wake-up call, AI may paradoxically free us. It can liberate us from the false chase for consumption and push us toward recognition-aware living.
That is why this could indeed be the time of Eidoism. Not because machines will save us, but because machines will strip away the illusions that once kept us blind.
“All you need is less. All you need is recognition.”
