I don't consider free time in and of itself to be better than the lack of it, especially when there is not that much to actually do in all that free time. I'd rather be occupied with something I hate than feel like I don't have anything to do, if I was ok with existing in a null value I probably would've killed myself already.
Also either way this kind of critique is meaningless because in no reality is industrialization ever going away, unless we get wiped out by a meteor or something. Even in the worst case scenarios climate change will not make the conditions for industrial society impossible, it'll just make those industrial societies much smaller and deprive them of most luxuries and pleasurable items in general. Hell, the continued industrial-ness will probably be mandatory to survive in worst-case climate scenarios.
especially when there is not that much to actually do in all that free time.
This is just bad history. Medieval peasants occupied themselves with hobbies just like we do. Just because they didn't have video games doesn't mean they had nothing to do.
I didn't mean to imply that and frankly regret writing that first paragraph because it just takes away from the more meaningful second paragraph. Obviously they still did things and had hobbies there's bundles of archeological evidence for that, but the breadth of possible things to do was much narrower.
Perhaps it's just a matter of personal preference but if forced to choose I will always prefer a wide variety of options with less time to do them in than a narrower variety of options with more time to do them in. Although obviously more time and more options is always better, and sufficient automation might get us there at some point.
I don't consider free time in and of itself to be better than the lack of it, especially when there is not that much to actually do in all that free time. I'd rather be occupied with something I hate than feel like I don't have anything to do, if I was ok with existing in a null value I probably would've killed myself already.
Also either way this kind of critique is meaningless because in no reality is industrialization ever going away, unless we get wiped out by a meteor or something. Even in the worst case scenarios climate change will not make the conditions for industrial society impossible, it'll just make those industrial societies much smaller and deprive them of most luxuries and pleasurable items in general. Hell, the continued industrial-ness will probably be mandatory to survive in worst-case climate scenarios.
This is just bad history. Medieval peasants occupied themselves with hobbies just like we do. Just because they didn't have video games doesn't mean they had nothing to do.
I didn't mean to imply that and frankly regret writing that first paragraph because it just takes away from the more meaningful second paragraph. Obviously they still did things and had hobbies there's bundles of archeological evidence for that, but the breadth of possible things to do was much narrower.
Perhaps it's just a matter of personal preference but if forced to choose I will always prefer a wide variety of options with less time to do them in than a narrower variety of options with more time to do them in. Although obviously more time and more options is always better, and sufficient automation might get us there at some point.