Comment on If Amazon is the future of work, then be afraidparentComments−harryh13ycrucial to understanding how society will evolve as the > necessity for labor is automated-awayPeople have been worried about the necessity for labor being automated away for centuries. Do you really think that this time it's different?I'm always pretty skeptical of that kind of argument, though in this case I do have some uncertainty.−rayiner13yI think the key difference is that an automated loom replaced one kind of worker, while robots and computers can replace workers across the economy. It's your judgment call whether that's a qualitative difference or just a quantitative one.−harryh13yBut surely the kind of robots that pack boxes at amazon won't be the same kind that build Teslas.Just like the kind of machine that wove cloth isn't the same kind of machine that forms plywood.Just like the kind of software that checks my taxes won't be the same as the code that reads my MRI looking for cancer.I'm not sure if the difference you describe fully explains what we might see.
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People have been worried about the necessity for labor being automated away for centuries. Do you really think that this time it's different?
I'm always pretty skeptical of that kind of argument, though in this case I do have some uncertainty.
I think the key difference is that an automated loom replaced one kind of worker, while robots and computers can replace workers across the economy. It's your judgment call whether that's a qualitative difference or just a quantitative one.
But surely the kind of robots that pack boxes at amazon won't be the same kind that build Teslas.
Just like the kind of machine that wove cloth isn't the same kind of machine that forms plywood.
Just like the kind of software that checks my taxes won't be the same as the code that reads my MRI looking for cancer.
I'm not sure if the difference you describe fully explains what we might see.