AI Won’t Make Our Minds Useless – Lessons from 400 Years of History
The NLW episode explores Venkatesh Rao’s ‘Cognitive Mercantilism’, arguing that the rise of abundant AI intelligence will expand human ambition rather than render our minds obsolete, drawing parallels from the agricultural revolution to today’s AI agents. It suggests that cheaper intelligence can unlock new desires, new work, and possibilities we have not yet imagined.
- Historical shifts in intelligence, from agriculture to AI, have consistently broadened human aspirations instead of eliminating relevance.
- Cognitive Mercantilism frames AI as a catalyst that creates new desires, jobs, and economic models rather than simply replacing human cognition.
- The pattern of cheaper, abundant intelligence unlocking novel opportunities suggests AI will generate unforeseen roles and creative pursuits.

