There is a reason we live in a golden age of dystopian science fiction: Increasingly, it feels like it is coming true. From “The Hunger Games” to “Elysium,” stories depict a world in which the trend of growing wealth and income inequality continues to its logical conclusion.

This narrative seems inevitable because it has occurred throughout history. The Luddites who attacked the automated looms that displaced them aren’t so different from the millions of truck drivers who could be displaced by self-driving vehicles.

What we’re going through now is called the fourth industrial revolution, marked by rapid innovation in automation, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other areas.

Last week, it was the talk of Davos, where Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella worried it could lead to social unrest or excessive regulation. “If we don’t get it right we are going to have a vicious cycle,” Mr. Nadella said at a panel on AI.

Economists assert that in the long run, at least, such revolutions don’t lead to mass unemployment. I’ve written previously about how automation creates more and new kinds of jobs. It is one reason America is approaching full employment, according to Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, despite more than two hundred years of industrialization.