We can also take some refuge in things like steam engines or electricity or the internet and how if you're just on the cusp of those you'd have similar feelings, but many years later here we are, still with jobs and meaning. A lot of people say this time is different but I guess when electricy showed up people would've said the same? I certainly remember people predicting that Manhattan would stop existing during the dotcom bubble because the internet would kill all street level businesses and people would work from wherever so big cities were over. And here we are.

I'm also conflicted but take a glass half full approach basing myself on the fact that when I'm feeling like "this time is different" it's probably my ego wanting my lifetime to happen at an interesting time in history, so my brain wants the current events to be the most transformative.

> A lot of people say this time is different but I guess when electricy showed up people would've said the same?

No. Electricity didn't raise the skill floor all that much. Certainly nowhere near the human skill ceiling.

> the internet would kill all street level businesses

That was never going to happen overnight, if at all. But online retail (and food delivery, etc) does seem to be slowly but surely eating away at local shops so I think it's within the realm of possibility.

It certainly didn’t kill Manhattan, but it did kill or at least seriously maim lots of small towns. We lost a lot of local culture in the switch to everything being available online. I’m not sure we’re better off.