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I think it might be worth pointing out that catastrophic "technological unemployment" is far from a sure thing at this point. We're still speculating that this

I think it might be worth pointing out that catastrophic "technological unemployment" is far from a sure thing at this point. We're still speculating that this is a thing which may happen in the future. So far, labour force participation rates in developed economies is still in the same 60%-70% band that it's ranged in since women joined the workforce en masse in the 60s. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that we're not in any better a position to judge than 19th century people were. These things are pretty hard to predict. Ultimately "AI" is not unique economically (short of Kurzweil-esque machine consciousness). The industrial revolution massively reduced labour needed to produce spoons or cars but actually increased employment rates in manufacturing. It was trade that reduced manufacturing employment rates. The communications revolution replaced the need for secretaries, typists, errand boys and many other clerical roles. There might be more people employed in "administration" today than at any point in history^. The relationship between labour saving technology and the demand for labour is complex, difficult to speculate about. ^The administration boom (pointed out by David Graeber) is baffling to me. I'd love to hear some theories on it.

RobertoG 10y ago
Of course, as they say, making prediction is always difficult, specially about the future. But we can make educated guesses. We know from the past that new jobs are created in activities for what there are not machines able to do it. We are running out of things inside that category. It's not so bad an idea to stop and think about what could happen when we arrive there. "short of Kurzweil-esque machine consciousness" I have never received a dime for being conscious, but I have been paid for making inferences that machines can't do. That they can't do yet.

RobertoG 10y ago

Of course, as they say, making prediction is always difficult, specially about the future. But we can make educated guesses. We know from the past that new jobs are created in activities for what there are not machines able to do it. We are running out of things inside that category. It's not so bad an idea to stop and think about what could happen when we arrive there. "short of Kurzweil-esque machine consciousness" I have never received a dime for being conscious, but I have been paid for making inferences that machines can't do. That they can't do yet.