Six Days

“Six days you shall labor, and do all your work …”

There’s much discussion in Western economies among secularists, and more recently among believers, about eliminating employment altogether for the vast majority of the population. You have almost surely read something to that effect in the last little while. Futurists tell us it’s all but inevitable.

The prospect of a labor-less future for humanity has Elon Musk speculating about governments providing “universal high income” payments to compensate their voters for the unemployment they expect AI to cause.

For unbelievers, any “universal” income, feeble or otherwise, is a sort of holy grail.

Navigating the AI Revolution

The concept behind UHI is not new. It’s a reaction to years of redistributionist mumbling about “universal basic income” (UBI), beginning long before AI reached its current level of development. It’s the latest in a long line of similar ideas about human industry, many going back almost a century. Some economists are skeptical. Sanjeev Sanyal insists, “Elon Musk's universal high income will bankrupt any government that attempts it”. Perhaps. Pulling it off would depend on AI growing the economy sufficiently to make it possible.

The prospect of playing videogames all day seems like heaven to many. But whether you end up doing it in poverty or comparative luxury, the idle life is not quite so wonderful as it sounds to those who have never experienced it. Before videogames existed, there was the English welfare state: soccer on the telly for generations of mid-afternoon drunks and substance abusers who never had the opportunity to work even had they wanted to. The result was a social disaster for those subjected to it: crime, drugs, broken families, suicide and hopelessness. A labor-free life is not at all what it’s cracked up to be.

Nevertheless, we are moving relentlessly in that direction notwithstanding the dangers. Many in the workforce today are underemployed by comparison to even a decade ago. One of my children works, on average, about fifteen hours a week, though it pays a living wage. Another has significant amounts of downtime when he is on the clock simply waiting for work to arrive. Some days it doesn’t, and he gets paid anyway. Such business models are rarely sustainable in the long term, but the point is that even those currently employed are finding themselves with less on their plates. Something significant has changed in the last decade or so.

An Environment We Can’t Control

I believe the AI revolution is destined to hit a practical “wall” of one type or another, whether that wall is financial, technical, environmental, political or even eschatological. My theology does not include a “singularity”. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this post, let’s assume we will shortly inhabit a world where affordable AI eliminates most sources of traditional employment, and governments are obliged to do something about it. Available options include culling the population (a surprisingly popular notion in the early parts of the last century), risking riots and chaos by allowing the urban poor to starve to death, or paying off the “useless eaters” (as some Brave New Worlders refer to them) with regular bank deposits, small or large.

The command I quoted at the top of this post comes from Sinai in Exodus 20. If I’m counting right, it’s the fourth commandment of the famous ten. Some read it as an obligation to work six days a week. I think that’s questionable. God’s emphasis in context is the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy, not the importance of keeping Israelite noses to the grindstone. Still, it’s a reminder that regular work is a significant component of the experience of being human.

In a labor-free environment, what’s a Christian to do?

Six Days Shall You Labor?

A number of our readers will point out that Christ fulfilled the Law, and that believers in the present age are under no obligation to Moses, Sabbath-keeping or the making of extra laws when scripture already has plenty. Valid points, all. Nonetheless, even if we only had the New Testament to guide us, we would still find its writers promoting the value of regular labor. “Walking in idleness”, as Paul puts it, is not a Christian virtue. Moreover, he encourages other believers to both shame and warn the idle, and he gives us this principle, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

The logic in context is that Christians should not be a burden to others but should cover our own expenses (“nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it”). Further, we find in Ephesians that another purpose for laboring is to have something to share with those in need. A Christian who characteristically has nothing to give to the needy is probably not living right.

Fundamental to the Creation Order

But if these are the only concerns, what if a man has independent means? If he’s receiving UBI, UHI or any variant thereon, he’s not obligating others to pay his way, and he has at least some resources available to help out when he comes across someone in need. Why then should we condemn him for spending his time any way he chooses?

Well, there’s another principle here, and that’s the people without a regular schedule of obligations tend to get into trouble. That’s not just a cliché, it’s scripture: “We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.” For a believer, that’s not a great testimony.

Even if we had nothing else in scripture to go on, we could go back to Genesis, long before the Law of Moses, and find that regular labor was fundamental to the creation order. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” God gave Adam a job even before he made him a wife to help him with it. Regular labor continued to be an expected part of the fallen creation order. “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”

Moreover, God has set man a pattern of industry in the heavens, not just in creation but also afterwards. “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” That’s what God does, and his children ought to emulate him.

What the Future Looks Like

With that in mind, what’s a Christian to do in an AI world? Take the taxpayer’s money and live like the world while giving no return? Surely not. Assuming the AI revolution continues as anticipated, believers will have an obligation to behave counterculturally, finding ways to make ourselves useful to the Lord and the world as it sinks into self-indulgence. Jesus promised the poor would always be with us. No universal government cheque is going to solve that problem. Certain personality types will always find ways to burn through a paycheck of any size with three weeks left in the month. Gambling and substance abuse are not going away.

I’ve been a fly on the wall in the past year or so as Postmillennial Christians in the Reformed tradition engage in spirited online discussions about what an AI-powered future holds for the Church and for individual believers. That’s understandable. Many among them believe discipling the nations may take as much as 10,000 years to accomplish. Such an eschatology demands answers to questions of political utility debated with appropriate urgency. Good for them that they are doing so. If they are right about what the future holds, we’ll need their wisdom.

Personally, I do not think the human race, and especially the Western world, is headed quite where the experts think it is. For all we know, the “AI wall” may take the form of the returning Christ.