Re: “there’s no reason to believe it [new jobs for humans] won’t be true with the proliferation of robotics.”
I can think of two reasons.
When affordable machines become as agile, or as intelligent, as the average person, 50% of the work force is going to be unemployed.
That will take decades, but it is going to happen, and within this century.
The good news - robotics and Artificial Intelligence will create unprecedented wealth, unemployment will lose its stigma, and welfare will be increased until all Americans enjoy a modest, but completely secure, standard of living.
I think AI is pipe dream that’ll never really materialize. We’ll see increasingly sophisticated algorithms for carrying out specific tasks, but nothing that approaches a thinking, planning, sentient being which can create and direct its own goal-oriented actions.
But I do agree that the growth in automation will necessarily lead to greater wealth for all. Such that it’s possible for a society to institute basic income policies without bankrupting itself. Nevertheless, I remain skeptical of the economic fatalism that we’re going to somehow run out of jobs.
“robotics and Artificial Intelligence will create unprecedented wealth, unemployment will lose its stigma, and welfare will be increased until all Americans enjoy a modest, but completely secure, standard of living.”
What’s not to “enjoy”? /s