Optimistically, it means that workers will be freed up to do things that are more important. Cynically, all you (a generic programmer type) really need is food, lodging, a laptop, an internet connection, so anyone not producing or repairing those things are superfluous to you, which is actually the majority of humanity (even if you include infrastructure and supply chain). "Humanity" itself becomes a wasteful, carbon-emitting luxury you allow yourself for sentimental reasons.
Or you can be sentimental for practical reasons:
"Eliminating the middleman is never as simple as it sounds. ‘Bout 50% of the human race is middlemen, and they don’t take kindly to being eliminated."
> so anyone not producing or repairing those things are superfluous to you
But we don't program in a void, right? Somebody has to create work for us and those would be the ones doing "superfluous" things. In other words, nobody would need our programming if all they did was supporting our programming.
Or you can be sentimental for practical reasons:
"Eliminating the middleman is never as simple as it sounds. ‘Bout 50% of the human race is middlemen, and they don’t take kindly to being eliminated."
-Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly)