John Maynard Keynes broke ranks with many of his colleagues in this respect when he made the case that automation would solve the economic problem. He argued that the economic problem had two distinct components and that automation could only ever solve the first of these: those that dealt with what he called the urge to meet our “absolute needs.” These needs, like food, water, warmth, comfort, companionship, and safety, were universal, absolute, and experienced equally by everyone, from a prisoner in chains to a monarch in a palace.
