if somebody has worked most/all of their life in a low-education unskilled labor job (the kind that are most likely to be disrupted by computers), who says they even have the ability to become a robotologist or something very intensively knowledge based? In the future these will really be the only kinds of jobs computers cant do. The problems here are much more complex than the Luddite issues of yesteryear, and its disingenuous to write somebody off as a dumb Luddite.

The Luddite argument is going to become obsolete one day. There are only so many iGadgets and squeaky plastic toys people are able to pay for. Just because an argument has been correct for along time, doesn't mean it will always be correct.

This is the wrong place to make this argument (it should probably be made at length) but I think the only real solution when we have a super-efficient, highly automated world is to drastically increase taxes to the super-rich and subsidize people with obsolete skillsets. But regardless, we'll no doubt see more interesting developments here in the next ten years. The current unemployment situation is just the beginning, although a lot is going to happen in the meantime.

(This is from a country where about 10% of the population is currently on welfare and we almost de-facto already have the economic subsity system I'm describing)