Post-AGI AI May Not Create New Jobs Like Past Automation Did
By
Carlo Iacono
Summary
The article challenges the common historical reassurance that automation always creates new jobs, arguing that there is no economic law guaranteeing this will continue once AI reaches a post-AGI level. It acknowledges that past technological shifts (handloom weavers, farm laborers, bank tellers) eventually led to new forms of work, but questions whether this pattern holds when machines can perform virtually all human labor. The core argument is that society may need to replace the wage system itself with an entirely new way of living that doesn't depend on selling one's labor.
Source
bskyPost-AGI AI May Not Create New Jobs Like Past Automation Didhybridhorizons.substack.comKey quotes
· 5 pulledThe handloom weavers found other work. The farm labourers the tractor put out of a field moved into factories, and then out of the factories into offices.
The bank tellers were not abolished by the cash machine; for decades there were more of them, not fewer, doing work the machine had freed them to do.
Every wave of automation in the historical record has been met, in time, by a wave of new work. The economy did not run out of jobs. It never has.
There is no economic law that says they will, once machines can do the work.
What has to replace the wage is an entire way of living that does not depend on selling your labour to anyone.
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