What happens when machines start squeezing out the middle class, though? It’s already happening; I can easily book an airline ticket without a travel agent, for instance, something that would have been a massive pain in the ass 25 years ago. If I had the cash to buy stock, I could happily do so without a stockbroker. What happens when the job you went to college for ends up being done by a piece of software that can do it faster than you can? What happens when the surgery you need can be performed more reliably by a machine than a doctor who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a college education? What happens when I can walk into a shop off the street, get cheap laser eye surgery from a machine and dispense with the need for optometrists forever? What happens when someone creates software that can read and synthesize more thought about the nature of capitalism than I ever could, and suddenly it’s that machine writing this essay instead of me?
And, of course, what happens when adaptive software or a game can teach enough content and skills to pass the test? Does the role of the teacher go away, or does it change?