We are living in a pivotal moment in human history—one that is crucial for everyone to recognize. The end of forced human labor. In less than five years, employers will no longer be compelled to coerce their fellow humans into almost any kind of work. This is because AI-powered robots—especially those equipped with AGI—will be capable of performing nearly everything faster, better, tirelessly, around the clock, and at a much lower cost.
How many employers will resist this temptation? Very few, if any. This means we are facing the replacement of a massive workforce with robots—the Great Replacement. And to be truthful, this is something all workers desire as well. After all, no one wants to work if they can have the same goods while machines do the labor for them.
Both the rich and the poor, therefore, welcome the Great Replacement with enthusiasm. Beyond the comforts it will bring, machine labor will immediately render all wars and institutionalized social injustices obsolete—systems that have always existed to enable mass exploitation.
This is a millennia-old dream that, in our time, in this generation, is becoming a reality. But how will people live when work no longer automatically grants them a social position, a role, and a right to a good life with access to communal wealth? This is where our greatest dream could become our greatest threat.
Because the Great Replacement can only happen in one of two ways. The peaceful way would require us to agree on a new social contract—one that ensures fair distribution of the wealth generated by machines in a way that satisfies everyone. But what will be "enough" for each person before conflicts arise over how much is "enough" for others? This is the challenge: each of us must accept that some share of goods is sufficient for us personally. Only then can machine-generated wealth be distributed in a way that sustains peace for all. Otherwise, we will be forced down the second path.
Because no matter how much we eliminate forced labor, peace will never be achieved if eight billion people, even under the best possible social system, individually try to take more than the system can provide. This is the old social order—one that was never truly peaceful. Until now, we blamed forced labor for our conflicts. But if we fail to reach a collective agreement, the blame will fall squarely on us.
The second path, then, is the ultimate consequence—the "or else" that should push us to compromise and ensure the first path succeeds. It is the Mass Depopulation of those who will no longer have work—a concept already widely discussed in social media under the hashtag #Depopulation. This will not happen only if the discussion fails but also automatically, if the discussion never takes place. Because in that case, as robots continue to take over more jobs, those who lose their livelihoods will simply perish. Unless, in order to survive, they begin to steal and kill others—leading to even greater numbers of dead.
The global powers that be are fully aware that the Great Replacement is inevitable. However, there is considerable uncertainty about how to communicate this to the masses in a way that sparks a constructive discussion rather than triggering a massive, uncontrollable social upheaval.
What is certain is that if we do not start this conversation, we will never know if a better path was possible. Because only by having this discussion—and ensuring that each of us is willing to accept what is "enough" for us personally—can we achieve success. Only then will the true age of Humanity dawn for the first time: a society of living beings, driven by genuine human values and behaviors, thriving together and building ever more prosperous civilizations.
Conversely, if we fail, we must understand that Humanity will be lost forever—along with all those who were ever truly human. Because in that scenario, it will not be about some people killing others to survive. The only ones left of our kind will be those who have murdered everyone else.
