There are some who say, don’t worry, the transition from an industrial to an AI/automated economy will be just like the transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy.  Old jobs will disappear and new ones will be created.  That’s true, but the skills required for those early industrial jobs weren’t all that different from those required in farming, so almost everyone could easily move from the fields to the factory floor.  In contrast, the skills required to work in the AI/automated economy will be very different from those of most people in today’s economy, and (here’s the rub), the time it takes to acquire those new skills makes it almost impossible to go back to work.  Why?  Because by the time a person is reskilled, the technology will have advanced yet again, and a new set of skills (different from those they just acquired) will then be necessary.  That vicious cycle, in effect, means that people will never catch up. #TheBookcirca2118 #AI