Should we be working less, and how safe is going cash-free?

New technologies are often touted as the solutions to our problems, as well as decried as the cause of all manner of social ills. We are told that increasing automation of jobs will mean more of us spending less time working, with ever greater responsibility handed over to software, sensors and the cloud. This week we visited some experimental projects that could offer a glimpse of our future, to see how people are grappling with the possibilities and problems of technological innovation. Reducing our working hours, while ensuring sufficient pay and essential services, is often floated as the best model for boosting productivity. It is also a seemingly inevitable byproduct of the rise of the robot worker.