In the early 1800s, the Luddites, a group of English textile workers, feared new automatic weaving machines were going to eliminate their jobs, so they destroyed them in protest. Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist David H. Autor points to that event as an early example of how fragile the dynamics between human workers and technology can be, and he notes that fears about automation's impact on jobs has been a recurring theme in the U.S. since the 1960s.

The issue has regained prominence recently, as the disruption created by rapid and accelerating digitization continues apace. However, as MIT scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee explained in their best-selling book, such disruption is accompanied by tremendous opportunity. As a result of technological advancement, "there's never been a better time to be a worker with special skills or the right education, because these people can use technology to create and capture value."