The farmer replaced the hunter gatherer but not with a robot, the work was still done by humans, and in fact they continued to hunt.
The industrial revolution too, automated parts of labor but didn’t take the human out of the equation.
This is a different situation though, it’s not equatable in the same sense. The problem with this type of automation is that the early bird will inadvertently kick the ladder; hopefully won’t turn into a feudal like society where the lower class entertains because this, as it may sound decent, is in fact a power imbalance that could easily turn into abuse. History shows us time and time again power patterns. And we should not be only hopeful it will not turn into that, we should actively make sure it won’t. In my honest opinion.
> The farmer replaced the hunter gatherer but not with a robot, the work was still done by humans,
Critically, the work was done by fewer humans (per unit of caloric energy). This allowed other people to specialize in other ways that provided value to the farmers.
Would it hurt the really good craftsmen who prefer to do it manually for higher quality? I wish I could get a pair of shoes that are custom made for my feet by a shoemaker. I’d pay more since they are better quality, last longer and are serviceable, the soles and the heels are still replaceable and there are still, luckily, shoe repair shops around. The thing is that it’s almost unheard of, at least here in NYC of a shoemaker like that nowadays. Automation killed them long time ago. Along with that we did lose some quality with it.
Whoever specializes to automate doesn’t care about the craft or quality as much as quantity. We’re in a better place now, luckily nobody goes barefoot these days, but I wish there was a solution where craftsmen could continue doing their art and craft the way they are used to without being pushed out by automation. I wonder if a compromise could be reached to meet that halfway such that automation becomes merely a tool in the hands of craftsmen, a solution where man is still at the center of his game and uses tools to enhance their game.
But the general consensus is that everything will be eventually automated away and the only things left for people to do is entertain eachother or something to this tendency.
