Four very different kinds of human work
Physical force
The capability to move matter — lift, carry, dig, push. This was the dominant human economic contribution for most of history and has been heavily displaced by machines since the Industrial Revolution. A tractor, a crane, and a forklift do more brute work in an hour than a dozen humans do in a day. Most of the displacement here has already happened.
Fine manipulation
The capability to perform precise physical tasks — the surgeon's suture, the plumber's fitting, the electrician's splice, the chef's knife-work. Robotics has been slower to match humans on dexterity than on strength. As of the mid-2020s this is still the most resilient physical bottleneck, but humanoid-robotics progress has begun to close the gap.
Cognition
The capability to perceive, reason, plan, write, analyse, and decide. The big change of the 2020s is that large language models now do many cognitive tasks at professional-entry level, quickly and cheaply. This is what makes the current automation wave different from its predecessors: for the first time, the substitute targets judgment, not only effort.
Social and relational capability
The capability to relate — to empathise, coach, negotiate, console, inspire, and bear responsibility. Several strands of research (Autor's O-ring sectors; ILO task-level analysis; the 'human provenance' argument associated with David Shapiro and others) suggest this dimension is where human work is most durable, though it is not invulnerable.
Pick any job. Which of the four dimensions below does it lean on most? Which does it barely use?