ReadMultiplex.com: You Have 5000 Days: Navigating the End of Work as We Know It. Part 30: The Midas Plague.

From ReadMultiplex.com Podcast. by Brian Roemmele

May 28, 2026 · 35 min · Episode 51

About this episode

The episode discusses Frederik Pohl's novella 'The Midas Plague' and its relevance to today's society facing the challenges of abundance and automation.

Frederik Pohl's 1954 novella: "The Midas Plague," envisions a future marked by overwhelming abundance resulting from effortless production, which resonates increasingly today as AI and automation become pervasive. The story depicts a world where individuals are mandated to consume excessively, revealing a disturbing inversion of wealth having everything yet lacking true agency. As society grapples with the implications of overproduction, the narrative challenges us to engage in meaningful choices rather than succumbing to mere consumption. Seventy-two years later, as artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics begin to replicate that same cheap, tireless production on a planetary scale, Pohl’s story reads less like quaint mid-century speculation and more like a dispatch from our own near future. It is a story about the moment when abundance arrives before wisdom does. It is a story about the Hero’s Journey we are all being called to walk right now. With a 5,000-day transitional period ahead, it urges humanity to reclaim purpose, nurture creativity, and build relationships, ultimately steering abundance toward flourishing rather than burden. Read more at ReadMultiplex.com If…

People in this episode

Host: Brian Roemmele

Topics covered

AI and automation
overproduction
consumerism
abundance
purpose
creativity
relationships

Keywords

Midas Plague
Frederik Pohl
abundance
automation
consumerism
AI
overproduction
purpose
creativity

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Midas Plague