Venkatesh Rao links AI panic to cognitive mercantilism
Venkatesh Rao argues that current fears about AI stem from an outdated view of intelligence as a scarce resource. He predicts AI will expand demand for cognitive labor rather than eliminate it.
Writer and strategist Venkatesh Rao published an essay titled "Cognitive Mercantilism" arguing that current AI panic is a modern form of mercantilist thinking. Drawing on Joyce Appleby's "The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism," Rao posits that the mercantilist worldview, which viewed wealth as scarce and finite, is being replaced by a "cognitive mercantilist" view that treats intelligence as a fixed resource to be hoarded. Rao identifies four parallels: intelligence is seen as scarce; ordinary people are distrusted with cognitive freedom; economic focus remains on supply control rather than demand; and most people are assumed to be intellectually useless. He argues this view is outdated, comparing the potential of AI to the agricultural revolution, which liberated people from subsistence farming to become consumers and innovators. Rao suggests AI will similarly liberate humans from the necessity of producing intelligence to survive, allowing them to become significant consumers of intelligence. This shift could drive a "cognitive industrious revolution" where voluntary cognitive effort increases as new intellectual consumption opportunities become accessible, rather than leading to mass redundancy.