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G
I would rather die than work another day, toiling away to produce goods and services in an attempt to sate the infinitely hungry needs of society.
S
You talk as though there are only two possibilities: either a life devoted exclusively to play or a life devoted exclusively to work. How will you feed yourself? Put a roof over your head?
G
The only argument against the life I wish to lead is death. One dies if they do not work. Yet, death is also inevitable. To continue to work is to bring about the death of my character, my curiosity about the world, my will to exist. To continue to work would effectively cause my death. If I die regardless, I might as well live a life I fully enjoy, if not short. What is life for, if not to enjoy it and to seek pleasure out of things you find valuable?
S
This seems awfully hedonistic and selfish of you. What about personal fulfillment? Don't you have responsibilities to the rest of society? If everybody lived like you, society itself would collapse. How could you possibly justify setting aside time to do nothing with so many things competing for your attention and time?
G
I am not saying everyone should lead the life I claim to want. I simply claim that this life is the one that would lead me to be the most fulfilled.
However, is it wrong to dream of a future where a life like mine could be the norm? To create shared fiction we can rally around and build towards? Having dreamers who believe in and drive this vision forward are a necessary step to manifest it into reality.
Play allows us to create environments where saying 'no' is okay. By definition, nobody forces you to play. Play is what allows us to create local spaces of abundance.
S
I guess there is no harm to dreaming a little. I'm curious what this future of yours could look like.
G
Wonderful. Let us imagine a utopic future where all work has been automated by machines activated purely through thought, requiring no labour to maintain its running cogs or to provide its goods and services to society. This is a utopia of abundance. Anything you could wish for, you can have: food, luxury, knowledge, happiness. In this utopia, one does not need to work to sustain themselves. I argue that there is no work to be done here. In fact, the only rational activity is to play.
S
Forgive my interruption, but how do you define 'play' here? Isn't it at odds with your definition of 'work'?
G
I suppose I should clarify some terminology. Let us first define something as instrumental if it serves as the means to an end (i.e. as a way to accomplish a goal). Work then, is explicitly defined as labour which is instrumentally valuable.
Play, on the other hand, is defined as labour which is non-instrumental. It should be intrinsically valuable and self-motivated. Games, then, are the reversal of means and ends. When playing, the means that traditionally entail an end become the ends themselves.
Let us take mountain climbing as an example. Say person A considers reaching the top as the end goal. For A, climbing is just a means of reaching the top. If a helicopter came by to offer them a lift to the top, they would happily take it.
Say person B climbs mountains for the thrill of climbing itself. B actually doesn't really care if they reach the top each time, it is just a means for them to climb more mountains. Even if a helicopter offered B a ride to the top, they would happily decline and continue their trek up the side of the mountain.
Person A clearly considers mountain climbing work whereas B considers mountain climbing play.
S
Ah, I see. This clarifies my understanding of how you define 'work' and 'play', but I still have a counterpoint. What about those who enjoy their work? The scientist, who after a great effort, has a major breakthrough on a problem they've been stumped on for ages. Far from rejoicing in the discovery, they are eagerly searching for their next challenge to be engaged once more. The carpenter who builds houses because she likes how they look and the feeling of it coming together. Can these individuals not exist in your utopia?
G
Hmm. I would posit that both of the mentioned individuals are actually playing games. The resolution appears to be the fact that activities which one views as instrumentally valuable (work) can, for another, be intrinsically valuable (play). The human experience is subjective, there is no universal standard for whether society considers something work or play. An environment of play is created when one self-imposes rules to prevent them from the most efficient way of achieving their goal.
To the carpenter who enjoys building for its own sake, that otherwise instrumental activity has intrinsic value as well. The same could be true of anyone who really enjoys their work, whatever that work might be. This is the definition of game playing.
S
This does make a lot of sense.
So in this utopia that you propose, I could theoretically just do what I find intrinsically valuable – play? And I suppose the rest of my needs would be met by the machines?
G
Correct.
S
I am excited to create this utopia of ours. Let us dream together then.