Season 2 • Episode 10
AI Series, Part 1: Who Survives a Revolution? Lessons for the Age of AI
What the Industrial Revolutions, Luddites, productivity gains and earlier waves of technological displacement can teach us about AI and the future of work.
About This Episode
AI feels new, but the fear and disruption around technological change are not. Jennifer and Julie go back through the Industrial Revolutions to examine how technology has repeatedly changed jobs, industries and communities, often creating progress for the economy while imposing real costs on particular workers.
In This Episode
- Why the Luddites were not simply anti-technology
- How the power loom and automated flour mills changed work
- How the cotton gin changed incentives with consequences far beyond productivity
- Why productivity gains do not automatically translate into better outcomes for every worker
- What Alexis de Tocqueville observed about wealth and poverty existing side by side
- How historical technology transitions can help frame the real questions around AI: who adapts, who benefits and who bears the cost
Cocktail of the Episode
Dark ’n Stormy
The corrected Dark ’n Stormy method is ginger beer first, then Goslings Black Seal Rum floated over the top. Add lime if you like. In the recorded episode we gave the preparation incorrectly, so the show notes include the correction.
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