Employment in the age of Em: Simulated brains and the economics of labor

Abstract

One of the most dramatic possibilities for future changes to the demand for human labor is the potential arrival of strong substitutes for human labor in the form of artificially intelligent computers. And one of the most dramatic versions of this scenario, and one of the easiest to analyze, is that of brain emulations, or “ems.” Compared with us, ems would be more capable in most ways. In the em era, human labor markets would become very simple: they basically wouldn’t exist. That is, few ordinary humans could earn wages in competition with em workers. Humans could still work for meaning and enjoyment, however. Thus, a reasonable hope is that ordinary humans would become the retirees of this new world.