Thread by @doctorow

Automation-based unemployment has always been overhyped. Any work that robots take over merely frees up human workers for the 2-300 year project of climate remediation, including relocating every coastal city in the world.

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But automation is also vastly overhyped. Take the oft-repeated claim that "truck driver" is the most common job in America, and first in line to be automated. It's just wrong.

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First, because the BLS "truck driver" category includes long-haul truckers, delivery drivers, couriers, and dozens of other subprofessions, most of which are far, far away from being automatable.

hbr.org/2019/09/automa…

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(The most automatable category is long-haul driver, and an automated long-haul truck in its own dedicated lane is just a shitty train).

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The overhyped nature of technological displacement is on perfect display during the pandemic quarantine. As many "low skilled" (which is to say, "low waged") workers withdraw from the workforce, the economy has ground to a halt.

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So much so that the right is now prepared to throw 20+% of seniors into the volcano to appease the market gods.

The category error committed by automation-fretters is to confuse "automating a job" with "augmenting a worker."

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"We know that robots are great at repetitive work. they can do that forever. What's not so great is anything with a human-centered context, a cultural context.” -@jgcarpenter

wired.com/story/robot-jo…

eof/