Alexander Wissner-Gross coins 'Precautionary Scarcity': don't mistake stagnation for safety
LesaunH · x · 2026-09-21
Researcher Alexander Wissner-Gross introduces "Precautionary Scarcity": when fear of concentrated power grows so intense that society suppresses productive capacity itself and mistakes stagnation for safety.
- 20th-century version: fear of concentrated capital impeding capital formation
- 21st-century version: fear of concentrated superintelligence impeding intelligence formation
He argues the shared error is confusing capacity with control—the pathology begins when "no one should control that much power" quietly becomes "that much power should not exist." He contrasts Marx (who wanted productive forces expanded, not abolished) with Effective Altruism (which risks weighing AI harms more heavily than the cures and abundance lost to delayed progress). The challenge, he concludes, is creating abundance without unaccountable domination.
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