Maybe I’m missing something important, but I think AGI won’t be much like a resource and also I don’t think we’ll see rentrier entities. I’m not saying it will be better though.
The key thing about oil or coal is that it’s already there, you roughly know how much it’s worth and this value won’t change much whatever you do (or don’t do). With AI this is different, because all the time you’ll have many competitors trying to create a new AI that is either stronger or cheaper than yours. It’s not that the deeper you dig the more & better oil you get.
So you can’t really become a rentier—you must spend all resources on charging forward, because if you don’t, you’ll be left behind forever. If we assume there’s no single entity that takes lead and restricts competition forever, this might lead to some version of ascended economy. That’s probably even worse for an average human: AGI rentrier won’t care about you, but also won’t care much about your small field full of potatoes that will hopefully let you survive one winter more.
Maybe I’m missing something important, but I think AGI won’t be much like a resource and also I don’t think we’ll see rentrier entities. I’m not saying it will be better though.
The key thing about oil or coal is that it’s already there, you roughly know how much it’s worth and this value won’t change much whatever you do (or don’t do). With AI this is different, because all the time you’ll have many competitors trying to create a new AI that is either stronger or cheaper than yours. It’s not that the deeper you dig the more & better oil you get.
So you can’t really become a rentier—you must spend all resources on charging forward, because if you don’t, you’ll be left behind forever. If we assume there’s no single entity that takes lead and restricts competition forever, this might lead to some version of ascended economy. That’s probably even worse for an average human: AGI rentrier won’t care about you, but also won’t care much about your small field full of potatoes that will hopefully let you survive one winter more.