I agree, but then I also think that the people who were working the fields with subsistance farming had no idea that a whole new category of work was about to e

I agree, but then I also think that the people who were working the fields with subsistance farming had no idea that a whole new category of work was about to emerge, they simply couldn't understand. Maybe we can't see the new work opportunities because we're so invested in what we do now. I can't see it, but that's the point. The problem is that previous revolutions like the industrial revolution were fueled by an increase in the extraction of raw materials from the earth which fueled growth. Now I see us as having the perfect storm with multiple attacks on our way of life which previous revolutions hdidn't have. We have a massive acceleration of automation and artificial intelligence, coupled with dwindling natural resources, and catastrophic climate change. We don't have the resources to keep our way of life going, and we don't have the resources to have another huge leap forwards economically (unless we start mining asteroids at scale, or something like that). It could be that this is the peak of humanity, or it could be that the peak is yet to come. But this is no doubt the peak in the way of life that we've been building since the late 1700s.