Binary Bits doubles down: the textile analogy for why cheaper AI output may matter less
binarybits · x · 2026-09-19
Continuing his debate with Ryan Greenblatt on AI-driven industrial explosion, Binary Bits offers a textile analogy: cloth production kept improving for a century, but its economic impact shrank because clothing markets in much of the world were saturated — cheaper cloth just meant people bought less.
He uses this to back his earlier point: even maximal automation of material production may translate into less growth than expected, because "the automated part shrinks as a share of the economy" and marginal material goods may rapidly depreciate.
Related event: Debating AI-Driven Industrial Explosion: Greenblatt vs. Timothy Lee(19 posts)→
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