"The neo-Luddism or doomerism in some left circles today risks missing the procedurally generated forest for the trees. ...

"The neo-Luddism or doomerism in some left circles today risks missing the procedurally generated forest for the trees. Thinking through changes to the economy and work brought about by automation, we ought to ask ourselves a series of questions while we prepare to pass judgment: Who controls and benefits from these changes and could the public put such technologies to good use? Are these developments aimed at supporting or enhancing our individual and shared humanity, or do they diminish it? Do we need this or that change? And above all, can we responsibly plan for and control these developments in a way that maintains social, political, and cultural standards, expectations, and needs?With technological development, the details matter. The Left should not be reflexively anti-technology, but rather skeptical of how technologies are developed, deployed, and controlled — and for whose benefit. An automated society in which states and worker-owned enterprises harness the marvels and wonde...