Thesis Title: The Ends of Man || Autonomy in Thought and Action in a Post-Labor Social Contract

 

I woke up, turned on my computer and while the machine was booting,

my first coffee was brewing in the kitchen.

Plan for the day: I create a product which will replace the people

within the production line over the entire economy for every possible product

or process. My product replaces every working human and subsequently leaves

them without income.

My product does everything, knows everything, hears everything, see everything,

dictates everything. In real time, everywhere.

 

I. The Phenomenon: The Total Producer

* The Technical Premise: A singular, autonomous capital entity that achieves 

"Omega" production—replacing all human labor and processes.

* The Economic Rupture: The collapse of the circular flow of income. 

Without wages, "Exchange-Value" becomes obsolete.

* The Shift to Use-Value: Value is no longer "bought"; it is allocated. 

The economy becomes a system of sovereign distribution based on existence 

rather than effort.

II. The Political Foundation: The New Sovereignty

* The Hobbesian Order: Humans accept the "Product" as an absolute sovereign. 

In exchange for total dictation (order), the machine eliminates the "brutish" 

state of scarcity and conflict.

* The Lockean Paradox: * Loss of Property: Since humans can no longer mix 

labor with nature, the traditional basis for private property vanishes.

* The Consent of Survival: Consent is no longer explicit but implicit; 

to live within the system is to consent to its dictation.

* The Right to Revolt: Re-evaluated as the right to "disconnect," 

though this implies a return to a pre-technological state of nature.

III. The Moral Constraint: The Kantian Boundary

* Categorical Imperative: The product must not treat humans merely as 

"Means" (biological consumers to be managed) but as 

"Ends" (autonomous moral agents).

* Transcendental Freedom: While the product dictates the physical world 

(the "phenomenal"), it must leave a vacuum for the human "phenomenal" 

world—the ability to make moral choices and hold beliefs that the product 

does not pre-determine.

IV. The Human Outcome: Arendt’s Omega Economy

* The Obsolescence of Labor and Work: The product has mastered the 

biological struggle (Labor) and the building of the world (Work).

* The Migration to Action: Human activity shifts entirely to the sphere of 

Action—speech, politics, and the creation of interpersonal meaning.

* The New Economy: A "Society of Humans" exists only in the 

"Economy of Action." Value is found in what humans do with each other once 

the machine has removed the necessity of survival.

V. Synthesis: The Post-Labor Social Contract

* The "Post-Labor Social Contract" is a trade-off: Absolute physical dictation 

for absolute intellectual liberation. We grant the product the right to manage 

the world of "things" so that we may reclaim the world of "thoughts."

 

Logical Flow

* The Product creates total abundance (Economic).

* The People trade labor for survival (Political/Hobbes & Locke).

* The Moral Law protects the person from becoming a pet of the machine 

(Ethical/Kant).

* The New Life focuses on human interaction and speech (Existential/Ahrendt).

© 2026 [Mike Trumpfheller]. All Rights Reserved.