OpenMined founder: information-aggregating tech centralizes before federating, and AGI may follow
iamtrask · x · 2026-10-19
OpenMined founder iamtrask offers a historical analogy: technologies that aggregate information — libraries, encyclopedias, computers/Google Books — all went through a centralized phase before federating into broad networks (no single world library, no single book). He argues AGI will likely follow the same 'cut the peak' pattern, and the real question is how to skip the centralized phase as much as possible. He notes the 'gather all human knowledge into one thing' motif repeats across history, from the Library of Alexandria to the encyclopedism movement to Google Books.
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