I should just save this for copy/paste into replies to various “robots will put us all out of work!” stories.

Weeellll….. mmmaybe. We’ve been automating since out-of-work weavers were throwing their wooden shoes (“sabot” –> saboteur) into automated looms in order to wreck them.

I’m not on board with the picture of a fully autonomous machine replacing 100% of workers in some field overnight, which is what articles like this always seem to imply (at least with their headlines). There will always be challenges that only an adaptable human can handle, and they’ll sometimes be crucial challenges.

That said, yeah, automation has been happening. I think it’s more of a challenge than a catastrophe.