AI replacing jobs is not just an economic problem, it’s a religious one.
Work has become the modern religion, and AI is waging a holy war. God will die, and AI will have killed it.
We want our jobs to give us an identity, a community, and proof that our lives matter. We teach people to find their calling in their work, and stigmatize the unemployed. The first thing we ask one another at a party is “what do you do?”
When people are fearful of AI taking their jobs, it is not just an economic concern but an existential one. This is what will make the AI transition so difficult: even if you redistribute income, how do you replace a source of meaning?
I sat down with NYU philosopher Harvey Lederman (now at Anthropic) to trace how work acquired this quasi-religious significance: from Aristotle’s defense of leisure to the Protestant work ethic to our modern obsession with careers. We discuss whether democracy can survive without workers, why losing a job can feel like losing yourself, and what a flourishing life could look like when you no longer have to earn your place in the world.