In the 1930s, the American press was captivated by the prospect of a huge swath of labor being automated imminently, likely by a socially conscious company run by two brilliant siblings. My first piece for @asteriskmgzn is about the Rust Brothers, whose cotton picker promised to put millions of Southern farm workers out of a job. They were idealists (John Rust was a longtime socialist activist) and called for big government intervention to deal with the fallout from their invention. "We want to enlist the aid of the state and federal governments to introduce this invention in a socialized manner through national co-operation," he told reporters. "A part of the profits could be used to administer a social insurance scheme for the disabled and the aged, and a program of rural industrialization and diversification should be developed side by side with the use of the picker." It didn't turn out quite the way they planned. But I think the way it did turn out has some lessons for the AI transition to come. Read the full piece: