At 7 a.m., the coffee machine automatically brews a latte, while a household robot sets breakfast on the table. As you gaze at driverless delivery vans zipping down the street, a thought strikes: If robots can farm, diagnose illnesses, teach, and construct buildings, could humanity finally escape the grind of work and embrace a collective "lying flat" era? While this sci-fi-like vision is tantalizing, it faces three harsh realities.
Chapter 1: Robots Aren’t Universal Workers
Modern robots excel at repetitive tasks. Sorting-center robotic arms, for instance, can process 60 packages per minute—five times faster than humans. AI imaging systems in hospitals can preliminarily screen CT scans in 10 seconds, a task requiring 30 minutes for doctors. Yet robots falter where human touch matters. The comforting embrace of a kindergarten teacher calming a crying child, the therapist’s ability to detect subtle shifts in a client’s expression, or a chef’s intuition for adjusting flavors based on a diner’s mood—these nuanced, warmth-driven skills remain beyond machines.
Even more elusive is creativity. While AI can mimic Van Gogh’s starry skies or churn out formulaic thrillers, groundbreaking art and scientific breakthroughs demand human imagination. ChatGPT might organize existing knowledge, but it cannot conjure relativity from thin air like Einstein.
Chapter 2: Free Lunches Require Golden Vaults
Suppose robots someday handle all essential labor, expanding society’s wealth pie. Yet free education and healthcare demand more than robotic productivity—they require equitable distribution. Consider Nordic nations: Their cradle-to-grave welfare systems rely on 45% tax rates. If robot-generated wealth pools in tech conglomerates, ordinary people might face more expensive services, mirroring today’s monopolistic platforms that hike fees rather than lowering them.
Chapter 3: Human DNA Craves Purpose
Archaeologists note that after mastering fire, early humans didn’t idle by roasting meat—they invented advanced tools instead. This "greater freedom breeds greater ambition" trait persists. When a Japanese car factory automated fully, laid-off workers retrained as robot technicians, boosting incomes by 30%. During Sweden’s universal basic income trials, recipients pursued education rather than idleness. Post-scarcity, humans instinctively seek higher purpose—a hunger no machine can satisfy.
The More Likely Future
Picture construction sites where robots haul materials while human engineers innovate designs. Hospitals where AI handles 80% of routine cases, freeing specialists for complex ailments. Schools where algorithms personalize lessons, while teachers nurture character. Society may guarantee basic needs but won’t endorse "lying flat as virtue"—for when machines lift survival’s burden, humans will inevitably seek new mountains to climb.
This may be civilization’s destiny: We invent tools to free our hands, only to put those hands to worthier tasks.
If a true "lying flat" era ever arrives, it might signal humanity’s twilight. Our existence thrives on creation and labor—remove these, and we erase what makes us human.