India, Aug. 23 -- Maybe we can get through the climate crisis without a global catastrophe, although that door is closing fast. And maybe we can cope with the huge loss of jobs caused by the revolution in robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) without a social and political calamity. But can we do both at the same time?

We should know how to deal with the AI revolution because we have been down this road before. It's a bit different this time, of course, in the sense that the original industrial revolution in 1780-1850 created as many new jobs (in manufacturing) as it destroyed (in cottage industries and skilled trades).

The AI revolution, by contrast, is not producing nearly enough replacement jobs but it is making us much wealthier...