A Brave New World without Work

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the soon-to-come widespread introduction of robots and artificial intelligence (AI)? Endless queues of people waiting to get unemployment benefits? Or the opposite: idleness and equality provided by the labour of mechanical slaves? In all likelihood the reality will be less flashy, though that doesn't mean we should ignore the social consequences of the technological changes taking place before our very eyes. The Fourth Industrial Revolution with its robotics, bio and nanotechnologies, 3D printing, Internet of things, genetics, and artificial intelligence is rapidly spreading across the world [1]. The coming technological changes will have direct consequences for a number of existing professions and promise in the very least to transform the labour market in developed countries.