AI won’t erase our value. But it will force us to redefine it.
AI fatigue is real. Backlash is mounting, some of it warranted, some not. The anxiety stems from uncertainty about how AI will work with humans rather than replace them. Throughout history, technological advances have created both promise and stress during uncertain times.
I’m drawn to the history of innovation because, like fashion, what’s old becomes new again. The feeling of disenfranchisement from technological disruption is timeless. Throughout this piece, I’ll use “Different Day, Same Sauce” to highlight these striking parallels.
Three Eras That Mirror the AI Movement
Let me take you back to inform our present moment.
Scribes: The Original Knowledge Workers
Then came the disruptor: The Gutenberg Press (1450s)
Scribes were the elite knowledge workers, dedicating their lives in monasteries to hand-copying manuscripts. Before Gutenberg, copying the Bible required six months. After the printing press, 200 copies rolled out in days. Scribes vanished overnight.
But the explosion of books created publishers, booksellers, and entire literary industries—eventually even Amazon. Different Day, Same Sauce.
The Luddites’ Lesson (1811-1816)
When skilled workers fought back
Textile workers faced automated machinery threatening their livelihoods. They destroyed over 1,000 machines in two years, but only to protest inferior products and wage cuts. This movement wasn’t anti-innovation; it was anti-exploitation.
Sound familiar? We recently witnessed writers striking against AI companies using their work without compensation. The Luddites remix.
What both the writers and Luddites understood: it’s not the technology, it’s how it’s implemented. That’s why ethical AI development matters. Different Day, Same Sauce.
The Steel Industry: Silent Revolution (1960s-1990s)
The transformation we rarely discuss
This era significantly impacted our grandparents through innovation that redefined not just blue-collar labor, but the entire contract between workers and companies.
Industrial robots and computers eliminated positions wholesale. What required ten workers and a foreman became one engineer at a console. 58% of the workforce disappeared; productivity soared.
The critical difference: Steel communities that invested in retraining survived. Those that didn’t became Rust Belt casualties. Different Day, Same Sauce.
Don’t Miss the Remix
Don’t be a scribe clinging to manuscripts. Don’t be a Luddite destroying machines. Be the steel worker who learned to program robots.
Our next chapter starts with understanding where we fit in AI, not fearing it. Let’s move from AI anxiety to AI advantage. AI won’t erase our value. But it will force us to redefine it.
