I love this one for an exploration of that question: Charles Stross, Accelerando, 2005
Short answer: stratas or veins of post-AGI worlds evolve semi-independently at different paces. So that for example, human level money still makes sense among humans, even though it might be irrelevant among super-AGIs and their riders or tools. ... Kinda exactly like now? Where money means different things depending where you live and in which socio-economic milieu?
nb I am not endorsing Austrian economics but it is a pretty good overview of a problem nobody has solved yet. Modern society has only existed for 100ish years so you can never be too sure about anything.
Honestly, I have no idea. I think we need to look to Hollywood for possible answers.
Maybe it means a Star Trek utopia of post-scarcity. Maybe it will be more like Elysium or Altered Carbon, where the super rich basically have anything they want at any time and the poor are restricted from access to the post-scarcity tools.
I guess an investment in an AGI moonshot is a hedge against the second possibility?
Post-scarcity is impossible because of positional goods. (ie, things that become more valuable not because they exist but because you have more of them than the other guy.)
Notice Star Trek writers forget they're supposed to be post scarcity like half the time, especially since Roddenberry isn't around to stop them from turning shows into generic millenial dramas. Like, Picard owns a vineyard or something? That's a rivalrous (limited) good, they don't have replicators for France.
> things that become more valuable not because they exist but because you have more of them than the other guy.
But if you can simply ask the AI to give you more of that thing, and it gives it to you, free of charge, that fixes that issue, no?
> Notice Star Trek writers forget they're supposed to be post scarcity like half the time, especially since Roddenberry isn't around to stop them from turning shows into generic millenial dramas. Like, Picard owns a vineyard or something? That's a limited good.
God, yes, so annoying. Even DS9 got into the currency game with the Ferengi obsession with gold-pressed latinum.
But also you can look at some of it as a lifestyle choice. Picard runs a vineyard because he likes it and thinks it's cool. Sorta like how some people think vinyl sounds better then lossless digital audio. There's certainly a lot of replicated wine that I'm sure tastes exactly like what you could grow, harvest, and ferment yourself. But the writers love nostalgia, so there's constantly "the good stuff" hidden behind the bar that isn't replicated.
> But if you can simply ask the AI to give you more of that thing, and it gives it to you, free of charge, that fixes that issue, no?
It makes it not work anymore, and it might not be a physical good. It's usually something that gives you social status or impresses women, but if everyone knows you pressed a button they can press too it's not impressive anymore.
