Comment The replies here are disappointing (Score 1) 540
Here's my summary of skimming through this mess: Krugman is a hack and a liar who is always wrong. He's predicting computers will make no further improvements, so that is clearly wrong. Computers are just getting started.
Hmm. I don't know what it is about Paul Krugman that makes people so rabid, but Krugman is actually arguing that the computer revolution is just getting started (against Gordon, who's arguing the opposite). So if the Krugman haters are sure he's wrong about everything, then the logical conclusion is: computers are finished.
I'm sure everyone here basically agrees with Krugman that the computer revolution is not over. Computers will automate more and more things. This flamefest was just pointless.
The much more interesting econo-blog discussion is: if robots can replace humans, and robots can make more robots, then it appears the Luddites may turn out to be right 200 years later: wages will fall. This hasn't happened yet, but outsourcing gives us a partial taste of what this looks like. The interesting question is, what to do about this? Note that taxing robot labor the same way human labor is taxed helps address this issue, but how do you tax robot wages when they aren't paid? And the really interesting question: has this revolution partially begun and is it behind the increasing inequality in advanced countries?