A world without money sounds utopian—until you realize what happens when we stop working, stop moving, and let the machines run everything.
Utopians say technology will end scarcity. But no one explains how we’ll access things machines can’t conjure from thin air
Elon Musk is once again predicting a future that sounds more like Isaac Asimov‘s idea of 2035. Speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum this week, Musk claimed that rapid advances in artificial intelligence and humanoid robots will make human labor “optional” within 10–20 years and that “money will stop being relevant at some point in the future.”
Musk argued that AI-powered robots, including Tesla’s Optimus prototype, will eventually handle “all the work that needs to be done,” leaving humans to focus only on hobbies or creative pursuits. He compared this hypothetical world to Iain M. Banks’ sci-fi “Culture” novels, where abundance is so extreme that traditional economies disappear.
But Musk’s comments raised more questions than answers. If money becomes irrelevant, what replaces it? And how would people access essential services like healthcare, education, transportation that don’t function like “growing vegetables,” his analogy for voluntary, hobby-based work?
Analysts and economists quickly pointed out that Musk didn’t offer any plan for how society would transition to this post-work, post-currency model, or how such a system would be governed. Experts also noted that extreme automation could concentrate wealth further, not eliminate it, unless governments enact aggressive redistribution or universal basic income systems.
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Others focused on the unsettling idea of near-total robotic labor. As one tech researcher told Fortune, Musk’s scenario would require “a level of robotics dominance that brings more risks than benefits,” echoing classic sci-fi fears about machines overtaking human roles
For now, Musk’s predictions remain speculative. But they highlight a widening gap between Silicon Valley’s utopian automation fantasies and real-world questions about inequality, access and who controls the future of work.
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