As artificial intelligence and automation multiply, so do dystopian predictions that millions of employees will become redundant, their tasks performed more reliably and cheaply by a machine.

But must the “robot apocalypse” be quite so apocalyptic? It may provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rewrite the basic contract of the labor market: Your paycheck reflects your contribution. In this alternative future, robots will take over much of the routine drudgery, freeing millions of us to do what we truly love or society...