automation
Explanation
The Joke
This is a long-form comic about automation and job displacement. It follows a narrative arc through multiple panels showing various stages of automation anxiety. The comic begins with someone worrying about robots and automation taking over jobs. As the comic progresses, it depicts the escalating cycle: automation replaces a job, the displaced workers are told to retrain, they retrain for new jobs, and then those jobs get automated too.
The comic satirizes the endless loop of the "learn to code" / "retrain for the jobs of the future" advice that is given to workers displaced by automation. Each time workers adapt, the goalposts move. The comic shows graphs and charts depicting productivity gains and job losses, mimicking the style of corporate presentations and economic policy discussions. The final panels show a "Bad Bot" being scolded, suggesting the absurdity of trying to solve systemic economic disruption through individual behavior modification -- whether of the workers or the machines.
The Humor
The humor operates through the relentless escalation of a familiar societal anxiety. Each panel that seems to offer a solution immediately undercuts it with the next wave of automation. The comic captures the Kafkaesque quality of modern economic advice: workers are told they must constantly reinvent themselves to stay employable, but the pace of technological change makes this a treadmill with no end. The inclusion of corporate-style charts and graphs parodies the detached, data-driven way that mass job displacement is discussed in policy circles, as if unemployment is merely an optimization problem rather than a human crisis. The "Bad Bot" ending adds a final absurdist touch, reducing the entire complex socioeconomic problem to scolding a machine.
References
The comic engages with ongoing debates about technological unemployment, a concept dating back to the Luddites but reinvigorated by advances in AI and robotics. The "learn to code" refrain became a cultural flashpoint in the 2010s as it was offered as a universal solution to job displacement across industries.