The crucial question to ask in the age of automation is whether this time
will be different (Ford, 2015). Industrial robots, 3D printers, and devices
based on machine learning are not only increasing labor productivity and
thereby allowing workers to produce more output with less labor input, but
are also performing their tasks with full autonomy—i.e., they are replacing
workers altogether. For example, while the assembly line raised the productivity of those workers who were still required to staff the lines in factories (and thereby their wages), an industrial robot does not require direct labor
input and thus replaces workers without raising their productivity (see
Growiec, 2019 for a discussion of the important distinctions among mechanization, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI)). To what extent this difference between machines’ historical effects and robots’ contemporaneous
effects changes the likely outcomes of technological progress in the future
remains an open and highly important question.
While the potential economic effects of automation frighten many, other
ramifications of an automated future will potentially redefine the patterns
and rules by which we live together as a society.