From Looms to AI: A Centuries-Old History of Automation Anxiety

On October 12, @soumitrashukla9 posted a 10-part thread responding to mathematicians' anxiety that rapid AI progress might replace their jobs. His core argument: technological change has always been "a deeply personal event" for skilled workers, and today's AI displacement anxiety is not new—it's a profoundly human feeling backed by centuries of recurring history.

Confirmed

• The thread cites several historical cases: in the early 1930s, commercial elevators required operators to manually align the car with each floor—a well-paid skilled job; after Otis introduced automatic elevators in the 1950s, the role largely vanished and workers went through identity crises
• During the loom revolution, the shutdown of telephone switchboards, and the shrinking of factory assembly lines, highly skilled craftsmen were abruptly displaced
• In 1964, a committee released "The Triple Revolution" statement warning that the "cybernation revolution" was severing the link between work and income
• Jeremy Rifkin published "The End of Work" in 1995 (subtitled "The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era")—talk of "the end of work" goes back a long way
• The author notes the material came from an exchange months earlier with @alex (original text truncated)

Why it matters

• The thread provides historical depth for today's AI-driven job-loss panic: such worries trace back at least several centuries, and similar warnings emerged when computers spread in the 1960s
• Historical cases (like elevator operators) show that high-skill, high-pay jobs can also be automated away, accompanied by identity crises among workers—a useful reference for understanding the AI anxiety of today's most skilled groups, such as mathematicians

2026-10-12 ~ 2026-10-12 · 6 related posts

• [source] From Silent Looms to Dark Switchboards: Why Tech Change Has Always Been Personal for Skilled Workers — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-12
• When Otis automated elevators in the 1950s, skilled operators lost high-paying jobs — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-12
• [source] 1964's Triple Revolution report warned computers were breaking the jobs-income link — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-12
• [source] 'The End of Work' isn't new: Rifkin published the same fear in 1995 — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-12
• Thread Finale: 'The End of Work' Fears Date Back to 1995 — AI Anxiety Is Centuries Old — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-12
• Technological change has always been personal: AI anxiety through centuries of history — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-10-12