---
title: "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)"
type: signal
url: https://frontiernewswire.com/s/modern-ai-panic-reflects-cognitive-mercantilism-a-zero-sum-worldview-3823c3ba
published: 2026-10-26T10:55:18.000Z
byline: "Source: TECHMEME"
---

# 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 · Published 2026-10-26 · Canonical: https://frontiernewswire.com/s/modern-ai-panic-reflects-cognitive-mercantilism-a-zero-sum-worldview-3823c3ba

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 …

## Sources

- [Read the original at TECHMEME](https://www.techmeme.com/261026/p12#a261026p12)

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