Lawrence H. Summers is not some kind of anarchist punk. He's been the president of Harvard (famously dissing the Winklevoss twins!), the Secretary of the Treasury, the director of the National Economic Council, and the chief economist of the World Bank. In addition he sits on the boards of several educational charities.

So when Larry Summers concludes that:

* Capitalism now is producing major distortions (aka inequality)

* Technology probably will result in massive job loss

* Education isn't going to fix inequality

* Technologists have reaped a disproportionate percentage of the gains of automation, and look poised to continue to do so

we all should listen at least a little bit. According to this eminent, serious, and even old-fashioned in some ways intellectual, we are all headed into a classic science fiction dystopia. Cue the Morlocks and Eloi!

More context and reaction:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/opinion/establishment-populism-rising.html?_r=0

I'm wondering if there's anything we can do besides commit to learning new things every day.

Lifelong learners seem to have the best shot at adapting. 

Don't be lame, Panda. You should do two things:

1) Elect the most extreme Republican possible to bring about the revolution faster. Ted Cruz is my man!

2) Support the Universal Basic Income movement so at least there will be an idea or two when the blood of the capitalists flows in the streets.

I am personally going to move to the country and learn how to raise wheat. There won't be any more gluten-free bullshit after the big crash.

I like the Universal Basic Income movement but I will never support Ted Cruz. 

If you want acceleration, Trump is our candidate for 2016! Grumpy Cat approves!

The extreme version of this trend is 2 billion jobs lost by 2030.

http://pandawhale.com/post/68695/2-billion-jobs-will-disappear-by-2030

Less extreme but still on trend: Robots, automation, and AI will replace 5 million jobs by 2020:

http://uk.businessinsider.com/wef-davos-report-on-robots-replacing-human-jobs-2016-1

1000 Reddit comments:

https://reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/41i9wp/robots_automation_and_ai_will_replace_5_million/

Separately the World Economic Forum in Davos concluded the same things this week:

http://pandawhale.com/post/70159/world-economic-forum-on-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-disrupting-the-future-of-jobs-by-2020

It's clear to me this job loss due to robots and automation is happening.