> But few would wish to go back.

Do they?

Back in the day when everything was manual I think you could reasonably make a living farming your own land. It was hard work but it was possible.

Nowadays everything is so optimized that margins are razor-thin and the remaining farmers are being squeezed from every side, both from the demand side for their produce (supermarket chains driving prices down) and from the equipment side (John Deere & co intentionally making equipment that's impossible to repair unless you pay them exorbitant prices).

This isn't about automation separated from the world it is used in, this is about automation speeding up inequality that isn't just growing, but accelerating -- and the predictable outcome that those who exploit and don't share with people when they still kinda need them, will certainly not share once they no longer need them for anything whatsoever, and can kill them in vast numbers trivially. If it was already occasionally possible to get soldiers to do it, how much more so owithout pesky humans and their consciences getting in the way.

> But few would wish to go back.

What does that even mean? I would love to "go back" and deal with things by not just letting the masses starve while people in costumes play god and smell their own farts, which is exactly what they do today. I would LOVE to see see that space exploration and awesome inter-species music festivals we might have in 2021 if the last few millenia hadn't been such pathetic ass.