Submission 84: "The Luddite Fallacy Fallacy"
Submitted to the Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers (2018)
This document forms the intellectual backbone of the ARP. It argues that:
- Intelligent machines substitute for tasks, not just repetitive jobs.
- Substitution pressure is economically inevitable due to the scalability of computation.
- The "Luddite Fallacy" (that technology always creates more jobs) is itself a fallacy in the age of AI.
Key Themes
Automation of Capital
The shift from human-operated tools to autonomous intelligent machines.
Commodification of Labour
The transition to contingent, task-specified work that generates training data for AI.
Inequality
Winner-take-all dynamics in the digital economy leading to concentration of wealth.
Policy Response
IoT transaction taxes, data rights, and AI interaction rules.