The myth of the endless ladder

“Ultimately, it’s a virtuous cycle,”declareseconomics reporter Annie Lowrey in a Times Magazine piece onthe job-displacing effects of automation technologies, “because it frees humans up to work on higher-value tasks.” The challenge today, she writes, a few paragraphs later, “is for humans to allow software, algorithms, robots and the like to propel them into higher-and-higher-value work.”The idea is an old one. Aristotlecompared tools to slaves: both provide their masters with time for more...