Recent AI discussions makes it almost certain that jobs would be affected. It makes me wonder what happened when suddenly humans were replaced by machines. Assuming a lot of jobs were lost was it that lots of people suddenly found it difficult to afford meals or was it not disastrous at all and was a smoot h transition? Can we compare it to today’s AI revolution in terms of adjustment with jobs?
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Ultimately the shift away from agricultural and craftsman labor to automated agriculture and factory labor and production freed up human capacity to address other things. It was disruptive, but in the end much of it was beneficial. The amount of human effort it took to produce a ton of wheat for example dropped dramatically. People moved from the farms to the cities and worked in factories producing clothing, household products, machinery, and all kinds of other things. The kinds of things which people were able to own and use increased exponentially and with that a higher quality of life and a standard of living (and of course some problems came with it too). The era also ushered in tons of “labor saving devices” such as washing machines which further freed up human effort to do other things.
You walk into a place like Target and see all kinds of stuff on the shelves to purchase – food items, clothing, furniture, gadgets, etc. This is more stuff, more kinds of stuff, and more useful stuff than likely your great great grandparents ever would have imagined. The average American lives better in those terms than most royalty throughout history.
Developments in technology, electronics, communication, transportation, medicine, sciences, arts, entertainment, recreation, and all sorts of other fields are the result of a large chunk of people no longer having to eke out a living on a farm.
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