21st Century Automation: Is This Time Truly Different?

In recent years, a great deal has been written about the effect of automation on employment. On the one hand, the pessimists predict that we're nearing a tipping point, where the wealth created by robots will be reserved for an elite few, while a permanent social underclass will remain forever unemployable. Alternatively, the eternal optimists portend that we are on the path to a post-scarcity world, and that the road ahead may be long, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. All in all, the optimists probably get a lot more right than the pessimists give them credit for. Unfortunately, much of that optimism tends to ignore the many bumps on the road to increasing abundance and, more importantly, disregards how those bumps could derail progress.