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Modern AI panic reflects "cognitive mercantilism", a zero-sum worldview where intelligence is hoarded as a scarce supply-side commodity managed by elites (Venkatesh Rao/Contraptions)

Source: TECHMEME · OCT 26, 2026

Venkatesh Rao / Contraptions : Modern AI panic reflects "cognitive mercantilism", a zero-sum worldview where intelligence is hoarded as a scarce supply-side commodity managed by elites — AI panic weirdly resembles the anxiety that accompanied early capitalism — I've been reading Joyce Appleby's The Relentless Revolution …

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