It’s true enough that we have been through a wrenching series of changes in our economy. The last election was to a large degree about just that. But as bad and dislocating as it has been, we are in for far larger changes — probably vastly larger. And we are simply wasting time thinking in terms of how Things Used To Be.

You can like the idea of artificial intelligence swarming into every aspect of our lives, or not. But you had better understand it. Because the handwriting is on the wall, and it is in a sophisticated script written by a robotic hand. It says Everything Is About to Be Completely Different.

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We are just beginning to have the required conversations about Universal Basic Income, health insurance, education and the very meaning of work in the society that is no further away than a couple of presidential terms.

Meanwhile. we are chasing each other’s tails in pointless partisan acrimony at the behest of a low-information president who does not have the slightest clue about the present, let alone the future. We are vainly arguing over whether we can get our clocks to run backward, or whether we should. And by the time we conclude that argument, we will have discovered that all the while the clocks have continued to run forward and we are out of time.

The coming era of mass artificial intelligence will be the biggest disrupter in human history, and if you don’t think so, ask your home digital assistant, Siri, Cortana, Alexa or Google Now. This is either going to be a catastrophe for workers or just possibly the door to utopia, but one thing is for sure: We won’t be going back to the 1950s, regardless of Trump’s incomprehension or the vehemence of his supporters.

Trump’s excuse is he’s a doddering old moron.