It’s Still Easier To Imagine The End Of The World Than The End Of Capitalism

Submission statement: “[*No Set Gauge*](https://nosetgauge.substack.com/) has a great essay on [Capital, AGI, and Human Ambition](https://nosetgauge.substack.com/p/capital-agi-and-human-ambition), where he argues that if humankind survives the Singularity, the likely result is a future of eternal stagnant wealth inequality.

The argument: post-Singularity, AI will take over all labor, including entrepreneurial labor. Working at or founding a business will no longer provide social mobility. Everyone will have access to ~equally good AI investment advisors, so everyone will make the same rate of return. Therefore, everyone’s existing pre-singularity capital will grow at the same rate. Although the absolute growth rate of the economy may be spectacular, the overall wealth distribution will stay approximately fixed.

I don’t think about these scenarios too often – partly because it’s so hard to predict what will happen after the Singularity, and partly because everything degenerates into crazy science-fiction scenarios so quickly that I burn a little credibility every time I talk about it.

Still, if we’re going to discuss this, we should get it right – so let’s talk crazy science fiction. When I read this essay, I found myself asking three questions. First, why might its prediction fail to pan out? Second, how can we actively prevent it from coming to pass? Third, assuming it does come to pass, how could a smart person maximize their chance of being in the aristocratic capitalist class?”

Its easier to imagine that everyone else is too stupid or too limited to understand you than it is to imagine that people have complex nuanced reasons for not agreeing with you.