Sometimes it feels like as developers we live in a a bubble. Don't most jobs endanger human development? I can't help but think about all the billions of factory, food service, assembly line type jobs. Do these not threaten "human development"? My cynical take would be all AI endangers is "white collar" work.

I think you're not wrong and I also think the author is not wrong -- and this just may be how technology/civilization/humans are going to change inevitably?

For example a possibly trajectory might be that many years in the future because human thinking has degraded due to AI-assisted cognition, most people will get a chip implant and AI-assistance becomes integrated with the brain. Basically same pattern as most everything else -- technology augments solve the new reality. I'm not saying this will happen, but just a possible outcome of this.