I feel there is a strong possibility this could occur. One possible outcome is Communism will rise as the best form to handle the new reality. Once 50% are out of work there will be some kind of revolution. Bear in mind that doesnt have to be totalitarian soviet Communism, but a system where wealth is shared and we all make some smaller contribution than the current 40 hour week, perhaps caring for elderly neighbours or other current philanthropic endeavours. The big issue with Communism historically was the inability of central planning to manage supply & demand, crops rotting in the feilds while the city queues for rationed food. But with IoT, robotics, block-chains etc. the ability for machines to question every individual about their preferences, predict outcomes and plan the supply chain effectively should be possible.
This is ultimately what technology is designed to achieve, humans not burdened by the drudgery of work, it might be utopia.
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It's important to remember that an intermediary state - which promotes equity and disintegrates the bourgeoisie -was part of Marx's conception of the progression of a society to full, stateless communism. Where Soviet communism failed was, in part, the transition to that state.
But yeah, I absolutely agree about technology easing the burden of work. I think that without the pressures and stress of making ends meet - doing work that could be meaningless, dangerous, unsatisfying, etc. - much of society would feel more inclined towards kindness, generosity, and enrichment of themselves and others.
I guess the question is, given the ability to do nothing or to do something, what will most people do? Many of us in todays society are conditioned to work, if I was stopped from working tomorrow that would be emotionally disruptive to me, some of my self worth is based on being proud of my career. So its likely I would volunteer, try to be creative in some endeavour. However we also see people in society who appear to have no inclination to work, they arent so much unemployed, as never-employed. This isnt just the very poor, but the very rich too. So where does work ethic come from, given a society of comfort and fairness will we gravitate to creativity, sharing and harmony, or feckless self destruction? I believe its the former, with a subset of the latter, probably not much different than today.