Domingos endorses Venkatesh Rao's 'Cognitive Mercantilism' essay on AI panic
pmddomingos · x · 2026-10-27
Pedro Domingos shares Venkatesh Rao's essay 'Cognitive Mercantilism,' calling it what the AI future will really be like. The essay argues AI panic mirrors the anxiety that accompanied early capitalism: mercantilist zero-sum thinking assumed wealth was scarce and captured; capitalism emerged when people discovered wealth could be created. Likewise, farming fell from 80% to 2% of employment without creating useless people — it created everyone else. Predictions built on how people use AI today are far too small, because expanded capability changes what people want.
Related event: Venkatesh Rao: AI Panic Is "Cognitive Mercantilism"(3 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- 'Lessons learned' papers may be worth more to AI models than 2500-citation atlas papers — owl_posting · 2026-10-27
- AI reportedly disproves the Exponential Time Hypothesis, shifting P vs NP odds — esrtweet · 2026-10-27
- The SMB process-data gold rush: 1M businesses selling know-how to RL environment companies — willcb · 2026-10-27
- Economist-spotlighted paper asks what evidence on work and wellbeing implies for AI futures — HaydnBelfield · 2026-10-27
- AI Researcher Flags Academic Post Hinting at Aerial Tracking, Zero Questions Raised — giffmana · 2026-10-27
- US Creative Industries Lost 200k Jobs in Four Years as AI Rises — emmanuelvivier · 2026-10-27