Beyond upskilling, an equally powerful and under-discussed force is emerging: deskilling.
For decades, automation amplified human intelligence. Machines handled repetition, freeing us to focus on higher-order cognition (analysis, strategy, abstraction) and those skills carried increasing economic value.
That trajectory is about to invert.
As superintelligence matures, human intelligence will no longer sit at the top of the value stack. The most cognitively demanding work will be performed elsewhere, more efficiently and at scale. As a result, the intellectual load placed on humans by the economy will decrease.
So what remains as “work”?
We sort out our desk, closet, and office.
We check in with people with how they are feeling.
We maintain relationships with customers and partners.
We move through towns, handle goods, buy and sell locally.
Work becomes ordinary, physical, relational, and grounded in presence rather than abstraction.
In this world, highly intellectual activity does not disappear, but it migrates. Our high level thoughts become hobbies, curiosities, or personal practices rather than economic necessities.
Economic value detaches from intelligence.
Ordinariness returns to the center of daily life.
The future of work is not hyper-cognitive.
It is quietly human.
Ranjeeth Thunga
Perspective Mapper