{"id":14035,"date":"2026-08-17T20:56:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/?p=14035"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:57:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:57:29","slug":"dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

A future in which machines produce more than people need could free humanity from work as a condition for survival, while forcing societies to rethink wealth, inequality, human purpose, and the social contract.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Since humankind first appeared on Earth, life has been governed by one harsh fact: that human needs exceed the resources available to satisfy them, and that survival demands ceaseless labor and unending struggle against nature.<\/p>\n

Man had to hunt to eat, build to shelter, fight to protect his land, and save to face winter, illness, and old age. Out of this necessity, the earliest forms of cooperation were born, followed by the tribe, the village, the state, the market, and the law. From necessity, too, arose property, the division of labor, authority, social classes, taxation, and money.<\/p>\n

So, when we ask about humanity’s future in a world where goods and services might become more abundant than human need \u2014 *(a fiction drawing closer to fact)* \u2014 we are not asking a merely economic question. We are approaching one of the deepest philosophical questions in human history:<\/p>\n

What remains of our social order if man is no longer compelled to work to live?<\/p>\n

And does human nature itself change once need disappears \u2014 or is need not simply a passing economic condition, but an intrinsic part of our psychological makeup?<\/p>\n

## Civilization, Child of Scarcity<\/p>\n

Scarcity was never an absolute evil. A great part of civilization was born from its womb.<\/p>\n

When man could not find food readily at hand, he learned to hunt and to farm. When he feared the future, he learned to store and to plan. When he realized he could not do everything alone, he cooperated with others, divided labor, and invented exchange, then money. When conflict arose over resources, customs, laws, and the state emerged.<\/p>\n

Man did not build civilization merely despite need \u2014 he built it, in large part, *because* of need. Necessity forced him to think, to defer some of his desires, to learn from experience, and to pass knowledge on to his children. Perhaps the whole human journey has been one long attempt to triumph over powerlessness: the body’s powerlessness before nature, the individual’s powerlessness before the group, the present’s powerlessness before the future.<\/p>\n

From this arose the social contract, in its various forms. The individual surrendered part of his freedom in exchange for protection, accepted the rule of law in exchange for security, entered the labor market in exchange for wages, and respected property because he wanted his own property respected.<\/p>\n

Yet behind all these arrangements lay one unchanging truth: to earn his right to live, man had to work or to own. Either he possessed land or capital, or he sold his effort and his time to whoever possessed them. Thus, the right to survive became bound to the capacity to produce, and a person’s economic worth became bound to how much he could offer the market.<\/p>\n

But what happens if this truth itself changes?<\/p>\n

## What Happens When Production Exceeds Need?<\/p>\n

Perhaps humanity now stands, for the first time, before the possibility that its capacity to produce goods and services could exceed people’s basic needs.<\/p>\n

The journey began with the invention of tools, then accelerated with agriculture, the steam engine, electricity, factories, and computers. Today, robotics, artificial intelligence, bioengineering, and renewable energy are entering the scene \u2014 not as civilization’s final destination, but as the latest stage in humanity’s age-old pursuit of doing more with less effort.<\/p>\n

A time may come when farming, construction, transport, industry, education, medical diagnosis, and service management become highly automated, low-cost processes requiring only a limited degree of human involvement.<\/p>\n

Scarcity will not vanish entirely \u2014 land, prime locations, natural resources, time, and human attention will remain finite. But basic needs may no longer be scarce in the sense humanity has always known.<\/p>\n

At that point the question is no longer: *can we produce enough for everyone? * \u2014 because production will suffice for everyone. The question becomes: *who owns what the machines produce, and who decides how it is distributed? *<\/p>\n

Technical abundance does not necessarily mean human abundance. Warehouses may fill with food while the hungry remain unable to reach it. Machines may be capable of building millions of homes while land, decision-making, and ownership remain monopolized. Treatment may become nearly free, yet the right to receive it may still depend on whoever controls the system.<\/p>\n

Abundance is a capacity to produce. Justice is a system of distribution. Humanity’s future lies in the space between the two.<\/p>\n

## A Social Contract Whose Time Has Passed<\/p>\n

The old social contract was born in a world of scarcity. Its logic was simple: every individual works and receives in return a share of what is produced. Whoever does not work and does not own becomes dependent on family, society, or charity.<\/p>\n

But if machines \u2014 in the age of artificial intelligence \u2014 become capable of producing the greater part of wealth, human labor will no longer be the primary source of production. And tying the right to live to the possession of a job then becomes a kind of historical injustice.<\/p>\n

How can we ask a person to work to deserve food, when the economic system no longer needs his labor? How can wages remain the gateway to life, when machines produce enough for everyone?<\/p>\n

The problem here will not be unemployment in the traditional sense. Unemployment means a person wants work, but the market finds no place for him. The new world may present something different: society simply ceasing to need most human labor in the first place.<\/p>\n

Food, housing, healthcare, education, energy, and connectivity become rights that follow from human existence itself \u2014 not rewards granted after a person proves his economic usefulness. A person’s share of common wealth becomes a right, because that wealth was never produced by machines alone, but built on the sciences, knowledge, languages, data, and accumulated experience of humanity across thousands of years.<\/p>\n

No inventor starts from nothing; no company creates its knowledge outside the history of society. Every innovation stands on a mountain of shared human knowledge. From this, it becomes only just that every person holds a share in civilization’s returns \u2014 not as charity granted by those in power, but as a right guaranteed by citizenship.<\/p>\n

## Is Work an Economic Necessity, or a Human Need?<\/p>\n

The transition to a world that no longer needs labor opens another problem.<\/p>\n

Work was never merely a means of earning money. It gave a person identity, standing, and a rhythm to life. When asked “who are you?”, a person usually answers with the name of his profession \u2014 “I am a doctor,” “an engineer,” “a worker,” “a teacher” \u2014 as if the profession were not what he does, but what he *is*.<\/p>\n

Through work, a person feels useful and needed, feels that his existence makes a difference. In the workplace, relationships form, along with rivalry, ambition, success, and failure.<\/p>\n

So, if a person is freed from work \u2014 whether willingly or by compulsion \u2014 does he feel liberated, or does he feel empty?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The absence of work may liberate the body, yet it may become a crisis of meaning. Man does not live by bread alone; he needs to feel that his life has purpose.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the new social contract in a world of abundance should not be merely a system for distributing income without work, but a project for redefining work itself.<\/p>\n

There is a difference between labor performed so as not to starve, and activity pursued because we find meaning in it. Caring for children and the elderly, learning, research, art, music, writing, sport, protecting nature, serving the community, contemplation \u2014 all of these are forms of human work, even if the market never recognizes their value or pays a wage for them.<\/p>\n

Work may not end; rather, work as a condition for survival may end. And then the question shifts from *”what must you do to deserve to live?”* to *”what do you choose to do, because you are alive?”*<\/p>\n

## Is Greed Born of Need?<\/p>\n

The greatest obstacle before a world of abundance is not humanity’s capacity to produce, but human nature itself.<\/p>\n

Did “greed” arise because resources were never enough for everyone? Did the “desire to dominate” appear because man feared others would seize his food, his land, his security? And if scarcity disappears, does greed disappear with it?<\/p>\n

There is reason for optimism. Fear of hunger, illness, and an uncertain future drives people to save, to possess, to hoard. Someone who has known deprivation may accumulate more than he needs, because he does not trust that security will last. In this sense, part of greed may be fear in disguise. When people feel their basic needs are guaranteed, they may cling less to things, cooperate more, and become more willing to share. Security can free a person from some of his selfishness.<\/p>\n

But this is not the whole explanation.<\/p>\n

A person does not measure what he has only against what he needs \u2014 he measures it against what others have. He may have enough, yet feel no satisfaction if someone else has more. Money then ceases to be a means of meeting need, and becomes instead a measure of status.<\/p>\n

Greed does not say: *I want enough. * Greed says: *I want more than you have. *<\/p>\n

So, abundance may end poverty without automatically ending inequality, envy, or the desire to outdo others. If people become equal in food, housing, and education, the struggle may simply shift toward what remains scarce: influence, fame, beauty, distinction, proximity to power, and the ability to shape others’ lives.<\/p>\n

Scarcity may recede in the world of things, only to return in the world of status.<\/p>\n

## Is Need Part of Human Nature Itself?<\/p>\n

Perhaps the deeper question is not: can humanity satisfy its needs? But rather: can humanity ever stop creating new ones?<\/p>\n

Man is a creature who is rarely satisfied for long. Each time he achieves a goal, another appears before him; each time he possesses something, he grows used to it, and it loses its power to astonish him. What was a luxury for the grandparents becomes a necessity for the children, and what was a dream for one generation becomes an entitlement for the next.<\/p>\n

This incapacity for lasting contentment has been a source of progress, and also a source of suffering. Had we been content with caves, cities would never have been built. Had we accepted illness as fate, medicine would never have developed. Had we not longed to cross sea and sky, humanity would never have discovered the world, nor space.<\/p>\n

But the very force that drives a person beyond his limits may also prevent him from ever feeling he has arrived.<\/p>\n

So even in a world of abundance, humanity may not live free of need; it may simply shift from material needs toward new psychological and symbolic ones. A person may want a longer life, a stronger body, greater intelligence, wider social presence, or greater power over his own fate and the fate of others.<\/p>\n

Here, need ceases to be a lack that can be filled, and becomes a perpetual motion within the human soul.<\/p>\n

Is ambition merely a polite name for greed? Is the desire to progress the bright face of discontent? Where does legitimate striving end, and possessiveness begin? Technology cannot answer these questions, because technology can expand human capacity \u2014 but it cannot determine the purpose for which that capacity is used.<\/p>\n

## Freedom, or Comfortable Dependency?<\/p>\n

A world of abundance could lead to the greatest liberation in human history \u2014 or to the most complete form of servitude ever devised.<\/p>\n

If the new means of production are owned by a small number of individuals, corporations, or states, most people may no longer need to work, yet they will still need the goodwill of whoever controls the sources of abundance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A person might receive food, shelter, and entertainment, yet hold no genuine right within the system that grants them. His rights could become privileges, revocable the moment he defies authority or steps outside the rules.<\/p>\n

The most dangerous forms of servitude are not always those that deprive a person of his needs \u2014 they may instead be those that satisfy every need, in exchange for his freedom. A person who is given everything by those in power may never rebel against them, even if they monitor his thoughts, his choices, his relationships. This is how a comfortable dependency can take root: a life without poverty, but also without independence.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the new social contract must not rest on the distribution of goods alone, but on the distribution of power, ownership, and the right to share in decisions. It is not enough for a person to receive a share of abundance; he must be a partner in deciding how it is produced and used.<\/p>\n

Scientific knowledge is a human inheritance. The language on which intelligent systems are trained belongs to an entire history of writers and peoples. The data that gives machines their capability came from the lives of billions of human beings. The infrastructure that underlies innovation was built by societies through education, research, taxation, and institutions.<\/p>\n

The wealth generated by this shared accumulation should not, therefore, become the closed property of a minority. Equality does not mean that every person receives the same thing \u2014 it means that every person receives the foundation that makes him free, and that no one holds power sufficient to turn others into his dependents.<\/p>\n

## From an Ethic of Scarcity to an Ethic of Abundance<\/p>\n

Most of our ethics were shaped in a world of scarcity.<\/p>\n

We learned that diligence is a virtue because idleness might lead to hunger. We learned to save because the future was never guaranteed. We respected property because it was the fruit of labor. We tied merit to output, success to accumulation, and status to what a person owns.<\/p>\n

But a world of abundance requires a different ethic.<\/p>\n

Virtue will no longer mean working more than necessary, but using one’s time and freedom to develop oneself and serve others. Success will no longer be measured by how much one has accumulated, but by the quality of what one has added to life. The capacity to share may become more valuable than the capacity to hoard, and wisdom in the use of power more valuable than the mere possession of it.<\/p>\n

The challenge will no longer be simply how to produce more \u2014 but how to learn to say *”enough.”*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A civilization capable of producing everything, yet incapable of teaching a person when to say “I have enough,” will remain an impoverished civilization, however vast its abundance.<\/p>\n

## The Harder Evolution<\/p>\n

Humanity took hundreds of thousands of years to surpass the rest of creation. Man was neither the strongest of animals nor the fastest, but he possessed language, imagination, cooperation, and the ability to pass knowledge across generations.<\/p>\n

He succeeded in mastering nature, but he has not succeeded, to the same degree, in mastering his own fears, his greed, and his desire to subjugate others.<\/p>\n

Today humanity stands at a different threshold. For the first time, the challenge may not be how to overcome scarcity, but how to live *after* overcoming it.<\/p>\n

Our tools have evolved faster than our values. Our capacity to produce has doubled before our capacity to distribute has matured. We have drawn close to manufacturing abundance, while our institutions and our ideas still belong to a world shaped by fear and competition over resources.<\/p>\n

The next evolution humanity needs, then, is not merely technical \u2014 it is an evolution in how we understand ourselves.<\/p>\n

We must move from a society that ties dignity to production, to one that recognizes dignity as a right that precedes production. From a culture that sees the other as a rival for resources, to one that understands another’s flourishing does not necessarily diminish its own. From measuring success as the capacity to possess, to measuring it as the capacity to create meaning.<\/p>\n

## The Question Awaiting Us<\/p>\n

We may, in the future, be able to provide every person with food, shelter, healthcare, and education, without demanding that he spend his life doing work he does not love.<\/p>\n

But we do not yet know whether a person can live without the need to feel superior to others, or hold power without using it to dominate, or receive enough without demanding more.<\/p>\n

Here lies the true test of a world of abundance.<\/p>\n

The question is not whether technology can produce enough for humanity \u2014 it is whether humanity can build institutions that prevent what is produced from being monopolized. The question is not whether work will disappear \u2014 it is whether we can create meaning for life that does not depend on employment and wages. The question is not whether need will vanish \u2014 it is whether need was ever merely a condition imposed by nature, or whether it is part of human nature itself.<\/p>\n

Perhaps man will never reach a state free of need, because every satisfied need gives rise to another. But he may still choose between two kinds of need: a need that drives him toward knowledge, creativity, connection, and self-transcendence \u2014 and a need that curdles into greed, possessiveness, and the subjugation of others.<\/p>\n

A world of abundance will not be the end of history \u2014 it will be the beginning of its hardest moral chapter.<\/p>\n

Humanity has spent its entire history trying to answer one question: *how do we obtain what we need? *<\/p>\n

The next question runs deeper still: *who do we become, once everything we need is within reach? Do we use our liberation from need to become more human \u2014 or do we invent a new scarcity, so that some of us remain masters and others remain servants? *<\/p>\n

The new social contract will not begin with the machine. It will begin with a new definition of the human being \u2014 one who draws his right to exist not from his labor, his worth not from his wealth, and his freedom not from his capacity to dominate; but from the simple fact of being human: a partner in civilization’s inheritance, and a rightful heir to its fruits, and to the shaping of its future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A future in which machines produce more than people need could free humanity from work as a condition for survival, while forcing societies to rethink wealth, inequality, human purpose, and the social contract. Since humankind first appeared on Earth, life has been governed by one harsh fact: that human needs exceed the resources available to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280,281,103,16,197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-collective-activities-articles","category-al-ahram","category-all-articles","category-articles-by-dr-badrawi","category-translated-articles"],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do? - Dr. Hossam Badrawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do? - Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A future in which machines produce more than people need could free humanity from work as a condition for survival, while forcing societies to rethink wealth, inequality, human purpose, and the social contract. Since humankind first appeared on Earth, life has been governed by one harsh fact: that human needs exceed the resources available to …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T18:56:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T18:57:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1018\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"663\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HossamBadrawi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@HossamBadrawi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\"},\"headline\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T18:56:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-19T18:57:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":3055,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"2026 Collective Activities & Articles\",\"Al Ahram\",\"All Articles\",\"By Dr Badrawi\",\"Translated Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do? - Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T18:56:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-19T18:57:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"width\":1018,\"height\":663,\"caption\":\"Screenshot\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"description\":\"Official Website\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\",\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\",\"width\":526,\"height\":272,\"caption\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\"},\"description\":\"He is a politician, intellect, and prominent physician. He is the former head of the Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. He conducted his post graduate studies from 1979 till 1981 in the United States. He was elected as a member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the Education and Scientific Research Committee in the Parliament from 2000 till 2005. As a politician, Dr. Hossam Badrawi was known for his independent stances. His integrity won the consensus of all people from various political trends. During the era of former president Hosni Mubarak he was called The Rationalist in the National Democratic Party NDP because his political calls and demands were consistent to a great extent with calls for political and democratic reform in Egypt. He was against extending the state of emergency and objected to the National Democratic Party's unilateral constitutional amendments during the January 25, 2011 revolution. He played a very important political role when he defended, from the very first beginning of the revolution, the demonstrators' right to call for their demands. He called on the government to listen and respond to their demands. Consequently and due to Dr. Badrawi's popularity, Mubarak appointed him as the NDP Secretary General thus replacing the members of the Bureau of the Commission. During that time, Dr. Badrawi expressed his political opinion to Mubarak that he had to step down. He had to resign from the party after 5 days of his appointment on February 10 when he declared his political disagreement with the political leadership in dealing with the demonstrators who called for handing the power to the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, from the very first moment his stance was clear by rejecting a religion-based state which he considered as aiming to limit the Egyptians down to one trend. He considered deposed president Mohamed Morsi's decision to bring back the People's Assembly as a reinforcement of the US-supported dictatorship. He was among the first to denounce the incursion of Morsi's authority over the judicial authority, condemning the Brotherhood militias' blockade of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Dr. Hossam supported the Tamarod movement in its beginning and he declared that toppling the Brotherhood was a must and a pressing risk that had to be taken few months prior to the June 30 revolution and confirmed that the army would support the legitimacy given by the people\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/hossambadrawi\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/HossamBadrawi\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do? - Dr. Hossam Badrawi","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do? - Dr. Hossam Badrawi","og_description":"A future in which machines produce more than people need could free humanity from work as a condition for survival, while forcing societies to rethink wealth, inequality, human purpose, and the social contract. Since humankind first appeared on Earth, life has been governed by one harsh fact: that human needs exceed the resources available to …","og_url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/","og_site_name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/","article_published_time":"2026-08-17T18:56:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-19T18:57:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1018,"height":663,"url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@HossamBadrawi","twitter_site":"@HossamBadrawi","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","Est. reading time":"14 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/"},"author":{"name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a"},"headline":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do?","datePublished":"2026-08-17T18:56:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-19T18:57:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/"},"wordCount":3055,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","articleSection":["2026 Collective Activities & Articles","Al Ahram","All Articles","By Dr Badrawi","Translated Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/","name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do? - Dr. Hossam Badrawi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-17T18:56:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-19T18:57:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","width":1018,"height":663,"caption":"Screenshot"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-when-machines-produce-enough-what-will-humans-do\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: When machines produce enough, what will humans do?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/","name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","description":"Official Website","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a","name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png","width":526,"height":272,"caption":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png"},"description":"He is a politician, intellect, and prominent physician. He is the former head of the Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. He conducted his post graduate studies from 1979 till 1981 in the United States. He was elected as a member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the Education and Scientific Research Committee in the Parliament from 2000 till 2005. As a politician, Dr. Hossam Badrawi was known for his independent stances. His integrity won the consensus of all people from various political trends. During the era of former president Hosni Mubarak he was called The Rationalist in the National Democratic Party NDP because his political calls and demands were consistent to a great extent with calls for political and democratic reform in Egypt. He was against extending the state of emergency and objected to the National Democratic Party's unilateral constitutional amendments during the January 25, 2011 revolution. He played a very important political role when he defended, from the very first beginning of the revolution, the demonstrators' right to call for their demands. He called on the government to listen and respond to their demands. Consequently and due to Dr. Badrawi's popularity, Mubarak appointed him as the NDP Secretary General thus replacing the members of the Bureau of the Commission. During that time, Dr. Badrawi expressed his political opinion to Mubarak that he had to step down. He had to resign from the party after 5 days of his appointment on February 10 when he declared his political disagreement with the political leadership in dealing with the demonstrators who called for handing the power to the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, from the very first moment his stance was clear by rejecting a religion-based state which he considered as aiming to limit the Egyptians down to one trend. He considered deposed president Mohamed Morsi's decision to bring back the People's Assembly as a reinforcement of the US-supported dictatorship. He was among the first to denounce the incursion of Morsi's authority over the judicial authority, condemning the Brotherhood militias' blockade of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Dr. Hossam supported the Tamarod movement in its beginning and he declared that toppling the Brotherhood was a must and a pressing risk that had to be taken few months prior to the June 30 revolution and confirmed that the army would support the legitimacy given by the people","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/","https:\/\/x.com\/HossamBadrawi"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14036,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14035\/revisions\/14036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}