It’s possible that artificial intelligence is something unique in human history, but the mass automation it seems bound to produce definitely isn’t.

Despite this, we rarely hear in any detail about previous waves of automation. There’s discussion of the Industrial Revolution, but that’s about it. We hear more about Engels’ Pause than we do about flagmen or telephone operators or motion picture projectionists.

This seems strange, because there has been a huge wave of automation within living memory. In fact, we are still living through it.

rowlandmanthorpe.substack.com, in "The case of the disappearing secretary"