[w1ntermute]

> That means we have more people who can go work on things like curing cancer and colonizing space

Labor isn't 1-for-1 substitutable. You can't take a 50 y/o manual laborer with a high school education who's been displaced by robots and just turn him into a cancer researcher or rocket scientist.

[bsbechtel]

It's not, but humans are dynamic beings who can learn new skills, not stagnant machines with one single function. 100 years ago half our population was illiterate, yet we overcame the displacement of thousands of farm workers due to technology. We will continue to do this throughout history again and again.

[w1ntermute]

> 100 years ago half our population was illiterate, yet we overcame the displacement of thousands of farm workers due to technology.

As new generations came of age. That doesn't solve the problem of all the middle-aged people who are now out of work because they have been obsoleted by computers. These are very real problems, politically, socially, and economically, in the short term.

[bsbechtel]

Lots of middle-aged people who are needing to develop new skills with lots of time on their hands. Sounds like a good business opportunity for a creative entrepreneur in the education space.