If we are trying to understand 'The future of work' - we're asking the wrong question

A lot of very clever people are spending an excessive amount of research time trying to uncover possible alternatives as to what the future of work and the working world will look like.

In any 'future of work' study there is always the obligatory long-list of technological artefacts that will, no doubt, affect not just how we work, but also how we live in the time yet to come.

If we have to think about this collective evidence of change holistically, what all of these amazing technological advances point to - is that productivity resources that help us generate commercial value, will become even easier to access and use and will decrease in relative cost as time advances.

Tools, techniques and knowledge that at one point where prohibitively expensive to access will in time rapidly decrease in cost.

Work will become increasingly easier and cheaper to do.

The price of specialist knowledge and expertise, will become increasingly cheaper.

Where at one time only the most profitable companies could afford to employ specialist labour at astronomical costs - access to that kind of resource will fall in price in the future.

Work itself then - over time - becomes non-existent.

Work as a concept will become a part of history and will have no place in the future.

So searching for clues as to what the future of work might look like - is a largely pointless exercise; and a classic example of society obsessing over the wrong question, because our thinking is so firmly rooted in our current paradigm.

A better question to explore then is; 'What is the future of planetary prosperity and well-being?'

This leads us to think carefully about how individuals and societies might create value and solve problems in the future?

How might we build a healthier, more sustainable future for all?

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." - Archimedes

Work is only necessary when you don't have powerful enough tools to manifest that which you hold in your imagination.

All indicators point to the fact that our levers are now so advanced, we can literally move the world with the touch of a button.

Focusing on how value will be created through work misses the whole point of what exactly it is that we should be building.

So we should really stop worrying about questions of work and rather spend this time exploring what the outcome of work should be. That requires imagination, curiosity and creativity - things that only human beings can properly do.