2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns
Oct 7, 2026 · 26 min · 8 segments
Blair has been thinking about how, as AI continues to streamline more administrative tasks over time, we will be left to focus on the things we humans are good at – interacting with other humans…
Blair EnnsHostDavid C. BakerHost
How did this happen? So I guess the, uh, inspirational trigger was Tyler Cowen's article in the Free Press titled "The Fertility Crash Will Make the World a Small Town." And in that article, he talks about...
It's going to peak in the year 2080 at about 10.3 million, then it's going to start a gradual decline from there.
And Hans Rosling, when he was alive, he was a physician and a statistician, and he did some work for the UN on population growth and other things, and his gift was he was an excellent communicator.
He did some talks, including, I think, a TED Talk, on how the global population is gonna peak at about 10.5 million.
And then we're gonna have problems because I remember Ed Claess talking about this on his podcast with Ron Baker, "The Soul of Enterprise." He said, "We don't have an economic system that has been tested in a world of declining population."
And if you think how fundamental growth is to the economy, when the population starts to decline, there may be some challenges to the economy.
AI is going to take some jobs, and we don't have to go down the rabbit hole of how many jobs, how quickly.
Or do you think not many get taken, or that the jobs that get taken will be replaced by other new jobs that we can't conceive of now?
I think AI is primarily going to contribute to greater productivity, not job loss.
You know, I don't remember if we talked about this in a previous episode, but I was writing a post recently, and the slant I was taking was that the history of these predictions of the impact of new technology is all littered with these overly excited claims, none of which ever came true.
How did this happen? So I guess the, uh, inspirational trigger was Tyler Cowen's article in the Free Press titled "The Fertility Crash Will Make the World a Small Town." And in that article, he talks about...
It's going to peak in the year 2080 at about 10.3 million, then it's going to start a gradual decline from there.
And Hans Rosling, when he was alive, he was a physician and a statistician, and he did some work for the UN on population growth and other things, and his gift was he was an excellent communicator.
He did some talks, including, I think, a TED Talk, on how the global population is gonna peak at about 10.5 million.
And then we're gonna have problems because I remember Ed Claess talking about this on his podcast with Ron Baker, "The Soul of Enterprise." He said, "We don't have an economic system that has been tested in a world of declining population."
And if you think how fundamental growth is to the economy, when the population starts to decline, there may be some challenges to the economy.
AI is going to take some jobs, and we don't have to go down the rabbit hole of how many jobs, how quickly.
Or do you think not many get taken, or that the jobs that get taken will be replaced by other new jobs that we can't conceive of now?
I think AI is primarily going to contribute to greater productivity, not job loss.
You know, I don't remember if we talked about this in a previous episode, but I was writing a post recently, and the slant I was taking was that the history of these predictions of the impact of new technology is all littered with these overly excited claims, none of which ever came true.
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