Woody Guthrie on Automation and A/I.

Posted on by Opher

The result of automation and artificial intelligence is to put people out of work and concentrate the wealth in a smaller number of hands.

It can end up with a divided nation – the extremely wealthy and the destitute.

However, in the right hands it could end up with a three day week, job sharing, a sharing of the increased wealth and greater leisure and prosperity for all!

I wonder which it will be?

Here’s so Woody Guthrie thoughts on the matter:

‘I went to work in a big steel mill

And I guess I’d have been there still:

But they invented a big machine

And a million men went over the hill

To the poor house – unwanted,

Unneeded, unwelcome guests.’

 

‘I always thought of a big machine

As the way the Lord his people blessed;

But in the hands of the selfish man,

The more you’re blessed, the worse it gets.’

8 thoughts on “Woody Guthrie on Automation and A/I.”

  1. «The more you’re blessed, the worse it gets.»
    I’d add it depends on who’s the blessing president.

  3. Always puzzled me – why are they being rewarded for running companies so badly that they need to pay them such big salaries? A closed circuit, methinks …

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