My point, perhaps too veiled, was that as the amount of work that humanity is required to do approaches zero, so too does the likelihood that humanity remains the dominant species.
I think the "dominant life form" thing is a bit of semantics. But I have found this entire thread very interesting.
It will be interesting to see what happens when humanity lacks scarcity. Research indicates that humans tend towards heirarchies, which are defined relative to neighbors. The "keeping up with the joneses" disease might be part of our core programming.
In a surplus society, I wonder what will substitute for status. Probably something much like our current system, I suppose.
You think I'm joking, but really I am only sort of.