A Counterintuitive Historical TruthIn 1930, British economist John Maynard Keynes penned a troubling prophecy in his essay "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren":"We are being afflicted with a new disease... technological unemployment."His meaning was straightforward: machines had become so capable that they would steal human jobs.Doesn't this sound remarkably like the opening of every AI anxiety article you've scrolled past today?Yet when Keynes made this statement, the global employed population stood at approximately 1 billion. Ne...
Posts tagged technological unemployment history
Your AI Anxiety May Be More Dangerous Than AI Itself
A Counterintuitive Historical FactIn 1930, British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a disturbing prophecy in an article titled "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren":"We are being afflicted with a new disease... technological unemployment."His meaning of "technological unemployment" was straightforward—machines became so capable that human jobs would be taken away.Doesn't this sound exactly like the opening of every AI anxiety article you scroll through today?But when Keynes said this, the global employed population was only about...
Beyond AI Anxiety: Why Historical Patterns Suggest Calm Over Panic in the Age of Intelligent Automation
A Counterintuitive Historical Truth That Challenges Modern AI FearsIn 1930, the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes penned an unsettling prophecy in his essay "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren." He described what he called a "new disease" afflicting society: technological unemployment. His argument was straightforward—machines were becoming so capable that they would inevitably steal human jobs.Does this sound familiar? It should. This narrative echoes through virtually every AI anxiety article circulating today, nearl...