At a time we are experiencing the overspread deployment of artificial intelligent systems in all domains of life, the present paper addresses the topic of human condition questioning both the universal existential circumstances that human beings share with all the other life forms and those circumstances that are human specific, claiming, in this case, that the capacity for work, in all its tangible and non-tangible forms, is a unique essential human attribute, responsible for the evolution of humankind as a species and for the development of their world. Being intrinsically human and not the result of a temporary condition or state, [work], i.e. [productive goal-driven action] has been, throughout times, enhanced and augmented by the creation, at first, of rudimentary and then of progressively more and more sophisticated man-made tools. In the course of this developmental narrative contemporary societies have become hybrid environments, this means environments where the physical is permeated by the digital, where human interaction is mediated by advanced forms of virtual communication, where non-embodied and also embodied forms of artificial intelligence coexist with natural intelligence where ultimately [work] in its intrinsic humaness is being replaced in many sectors by task performing and decision-making per artificial intelligent systems. This present context and its predictable development in the near future demand the emergence of a deep awareness on the part of different stakeholders: research and development institutions, policy makers and governance, business and on the part of society in general, so that intelligent technology remains a human tool for enhancing and augmenting work, respecting its fundamental twofold dimension as: (1) a generative endowment for the creation of human reality (2) a means for the fulfilment and existential satisfaction of every human being. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
On Human Condition: The Status of Work