A good question to ask is---do we want to create jobs? "Job" has a variety of meanings. It can mean a great opportunity, or it can mean devalued wage slavery.

A good question to ask is---do we want to create jobs? "Job" has a variety of meanings. It can mean a great opportunity, or it can mean devalued wage slavery. Usually it means filling a role as an economic input in the profit machine someone is constructing. The killer development that would create a bunch of jobs at a stroke would be a tool that lets companies profit by hiring uneducated people. But there are other options for helping the masses than jobs. On the cost reduction front, cheap home solar energy would be huge in terms of saving people from their utility bills. Optimized-for-small-garden strains of crops could play the same role with food. Also, there are some scenarios where something doesn't create jobs per se, but certainly allows people to make wealth. The rise of the OSS stack was one, and 3d printing might become another.