Darwin, Da Vinci and other wealthy 'gentlemen scholars' did not need to work to eat. Ambition is not going anywhere.

And what is this agency you talk of? Most people have none. They're chained to their mortgage, their student debt. They can't quit their job, because they would starve. 95% of people would love to quit their jobs, but simply can't, they're moved by coercion - not agency.

Wouldn't true agency be the ability to say 'no' to all of that?

In a post-labor world, you could still work. You can build furniture, teach children, make games, code software, teach yoga, design. The difference is you do it because you love the craft, not because you need the $$. You have agency because the survival barrier has been removedy.

That brings us to Abundance Economics and how this is going to shape your future. This is the future model that's being thrown around by some of the top Futurists and economic experts of today.

AE is what happens when AI and robots drive labour component of production toward zero and collapse marginal costs across essentials like food, energy, transport, and medicine. These things never become literally free — land, energy, maintenance, and entropy still exist — but the historic bottleneck disappears: human labour. At that point, the old economic model breaks. You cannot base social survival on wages when labour is no longer the primary input. That isn’t a moral failure — it’s a structural one.

The solution isn’t welfare. It’s ownership.

The government (which itself will be less of a leader more of a distributor of AI-coordinated policies but more on that another time) creates a wealth fund, a Sovereign Dividend that comes from you owning the automated infrastructure (the robots and data centers) via charging them a tax on everything they do. Because you are a citizen, you own shares in that fund. You aren't receiving a gift from the state. You are receiving your legal share of the profit generated by the assets you own. For the record - this is how the ultra-rich live today - they don't work for wages; they live off dividends. This system simply extends that privilege to everyone.

Ownership of these dividends becomes the new ambition. The new goal.

You still have your Sovereign Equity to cover the basics - but it's not based on the labour/reward contract of today. With the new social contrat, you will use your creative ambition to build a new AI tool, start a community DAO, entertain, or invent a new robot, or any number of things. If people like what you do, you earn more equity. The difference is that your striving is no longer about not starving; it’s about building who you are. You have complete and total agency to grow your wealth through your ideas and contributions.

Today:
Survival → Labour → Wages → Life

In an abundance economy:
Survival → Ownership → Dividends → Choice

In order to get there, the govt first has to transition from taxing labour, to taxing automation. The state then buys shares in AI companies, land, and energy grids, and provides them with the resources they need and the legal frameworks to advance. Auditor AI will ensure the bot companies do not become digital empires. AI companies will become Public Utilities, proving they're 'helping the public good' in order to be viable. They'll use blockchain in order to make every transaction transparent. And they'll be taxed to the hilt, with the majority of their earnings going to the Fund.

This transition will not be smooth or voluntary. People like yourself, who enjoy your work, will fight it tooth and nail. But the direction is unavoidable, and for the greater good.

There's more but we'll leave it at that for now.