Productivity Is a Drag. Work Is Divine.

Why should humans do anything, if machines can do it better? The answer is crucial to the future of human civilization—and may just lie in religious texts from centuries ago. From the digital (Google searches and Slack chats) to the purely mechanical (washing machines and microwaves), humans use tools nearly constantly to enhance or replace our own labor. Those that save time and effort are easy to appreciate—I have yet to meet someone who misses scrubbing clothes by hand. But the rapid rise of artificial intelligence—which can now write essays...