Venkatesh Rao's long essay argues AI panic is a form of "Cognitive Mercantilism"
ianand · x · 2026-10-26
Venkatesh Rao publishes a long essay on Contraptions drawing on Joyce Appleby's history of capitalism to frame current AI anxiety.
Core argument: AI panic structurally resembles pre-capitalist mercantilist anxiety. Appleby's thesis holds that capitalism was a contingent cultural invention requiring people to escape a zero-sum worldview where wealth meant controlling land, bullion and labor — discovering instead that wealth could be created and ordinary people could be sources of demand and initiative.
Rao contends today's AI discourse is stuck in its own "cognitive mercantilism": treating intelligence as a scarce resource to hoard and fight over rather than something that can be created and diffused. Readers are calling it the most comprehensive AI take they've read in a year.
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