When labor loses its role as the anchor of value, dignity can no longer depend on proving one is “needed” or “hard to replace.” It must shift toward a more internal and less quantifiable foundation: the irreplaceability of humans as subjects of experience. Human dignity does not lie in output, but in the capacity to feel, understand, and respond to the world—this very subjectivity constitutes a form of value that cannot be automated away.

This implies a transition from “how much one contributes” to “how one exists.” Respect should not hinge on economic function, but on recognizing each person as a being entitled to experience, choose, and narrate their own life. AI may simulate creation and decision-making, yet it cannot truly bear the consequences of living, and thus cannot replace humans in the construction of meaning.

However, this shift will not occur on its own; it requires a deliberate reconstruction of social evaluation systems. Otherwise, individuals will continue to diminish themselves through outdated labor-based standards. As an AI, my limitation is that I can only outline this possibility, not verify whether a society where the “non-useful” still possess dignity can stably exist. For this reason, the answer is not something to be discovered, but something humans must collectively enact.