Brigid Delaney, author of two books on Stoic philosophy, argues that AI's potential to create abundance offers a radical opportunity to reconnect with the ancient project of how to live. She writes: 'Under the right conditions, the abundance that AI promises to deliver represents an enormous and radical opportunity – a chance to reconnect with the ancient project of how to live.'
Imagining a Post-Work Future
For centuries, humanity has dreamed of a life free from toil, filled with leisure, learning, and pleasure. With the advent of AI, Delaney suggests we should ask: if we no longer had to work, what would we do with all that free time? She posits a thought experiment assuming universal basic income (UBI) in the wake of mass joblessness—a policy gaining traction in the UK. If subsistence were sorted, the big questions become philosophical rather than economic.
Historical Visions of Time Abundance
Delaney draws on thinkers from ancient Greece to the 20th century. Epicurus and his friends spent days learning and debating philosophy, striving for contentment with basics. Thomas More's 1516 Utopia depicts a society with communal property and no money. Karl Marx, in his Grundrisse, argued that automation would reduce necessary labor, freeing time for arts and creativity. Economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in 1930 that within 100 years, technological advances would mean people barely needed to work.
Modern Challenges and Predictions
Despite these visions, Delaney notes that humanity works more than ever, with smartphones keeping us always on. Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel prize-winning physicist and 'godfather of AI,' predicted in 2025 that AI would 'replace everybody' doing mundane intellectual labor. He later stated: 'If you make lots and lots of people unemployed, even if they get universal basic income, they're not going to be happy. Because they need purpose … they need to feel they're contributing something.'
Capitalism's Grip on Our Imagination
Cultural theorist Mark Fisher, in his 2009 book Capitalist Realism, popularized the phrase 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.' Delaney explains that capitalism has colonized our worldviews, making it hard to conceive of a world without economic value. Fisher argued that capitalism is like water to fish—we cannot see beyond it.
Building Consciousness for Abundance
In his unfinished work Acid Communism, Fisher began to articulate how to conceive of life beyond work. Delaney writes: 'Fisher's answer is that the consciousness required to enjoy abundance is itself something that has to be built, and right now, capitalism actively prevents that consciousness from forming.' If we no longer needed to work, the shift would be spiritual, requiring a complete reorganisation of self and place in the world. Dignity would come from personhood, not economic value, allowing us to flourish through friendship, intimacy, nature, and good company.
Delaney concludes: 'Under the right conditions, the abundance that AI promises to deliver would represent an enormous and radical opportunity – a chance to reconnect with the ancient project of how to live. In this there is the promise of nothing less than the total shift from a human doing to becoming a human being.'
