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“Four ways Econ makes people dumber re: future AI” by Steven Byrnes
Manage episode 501662228 series 3364758
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(Cross-posted from X, intended for a general audience.)
There's a funny thing where economics education paradoxically makes people DUMBER at thinking about future AI. Econ textbooks teach concepts & frames that are great for most things, but counterproductive for thinking about AGI. Here are 4 examples. Longpost:
THE FIRST PIECE of Econ anti-pedagogy is hiding in the words “labor” & “capital”. These words conflate a superficial difference (flesh-and-blood human vs not) with a bundle of unspoken assumptions and intuitions, which will all get broken by Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
By “AGI” I mean here “a bundle of chips, algorithms, electricity, and/or teleoperated robots that can autonomously do the kinds of stuff that ambitious human adults can do—founding and running new companies, R&D, learning new skills, using arbitrary teleoperated robots after very little practice, etc.”
Yes I know, this does not exist yet! (Despite hype to the contrary.) Try asking [...]
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Outline:
(08:50) Tweet 2
(09:19) Tweet 3
(10:16) Tweet 4
(11:15) Tweet 5
(11:31) 1.3.2 Three increasingly-radical perspectives on what AI capability acquisition will look like
The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.
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First published:
August 21st, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xJWBofhLQjf3KmRgg/four-ways-econ-makes-people-dumber-re-future-ai
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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There's a funny thing where economics education paradoxically makes people DUMBER at thinking about future AI. Econ textbooks teach concepts & frames that are great for most things, but counterproductive for thinking about AGI. Here are 4 examples. Longpost:
THE FIRST PIECE of Econ anti-pedagogy is hiding in the words “labor” & “capital”. These words conflate a superficial difference (flesh-and-blood human vs not) with a bundle of unspoken assumptions and intuitions, which will all get broken by Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
By “AGI” I mean here “a bundle of chips, algorithms, electricity, and/or teleoperated robots that can autonomously do the kinds of stuff that ambitious human adults can do—founding and running new companies, R&D, learning new skills, using arbitrary teleoperated robots after very little practice, etc.”
Yes I know, this does not exist yet! (Despite hype to the contrary.) Try asking [...]
---
Outline:
(08:50) Tweet 2
(09:19) Tweet 3
(10:16) Tweet 4
(11:15) Tweet 5
(11:31) 1.3.2 Three increasingly-radical perspectives on what AI capability acquisition will look like
The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.
---
First published:
August 21st, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xJWBofhLQjf3KmRgg/four-ways-econ-makes-people-dumber-re-future-ai
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
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