MODERATE COPE
Two economists from DeepMind and Epoch give a sophisticated, technically literate tour of post-AGI scarcity — then deploy the full classical-economics cope arsenal to dodge the conclusion. Ricardo was worried about machines too and look how that turned out. The Mongolian economist in 1400 couldn't have predicted yogurt varieties, so how dare you worry about labor share. The white-collar bloodbath is just 'narrative.' The messy middle requires 'implausible' conditions. Elasticity of demand will save us. Just buy the index. The guests do engage seriously with the possibility that capital share goes to 1, and Phil's 'greedy optimizer' selection argument is genuinely lucid about rentier dynamics — but the entire framing remains 'we don't have data, could go either way,' which is economist-speak for 'we refuse to commit to the structural termination thesis.'