[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

On the other hand, horse-drawn carriages were never poised to eliminate entire industries.

Things change. Tech can be wildly unpredictable in its social effects-- ultimately the only truly accurate predication for the future will be made by us, the people who will live in it.

I think we can do a bit better than wild guessing.

What seems clear to me is that automation of large swaths of jobs will, eventually, result in a much smaller job market. No modern economies are, at present, structured to deal with that change. I foresee this being a problem. It is unclear how many economies will function if/when most wealth essentially creates itself.

The potential impact on STEM careers, I don't know. There's lots of talk of there being a STEM shortage in the current job market, which would only get worse given increased demand for STEM workers, but it's not entirely clear if that's really the case.