AI elites might hoard intelligence like mercantilists hoarded gold Manuel Uth Nov 2, 2026 If you only think about lost jobs when you think about AI, you're missing how much intelligence people will be able to use. That's the argument from engineer Venkatesh Rao in an essay on his tech blog "Contraptions." Rao compares AI fear to mercantilism, the economic doctrine that preceded capitalism. Mercantilists treated wealth like land and gold as finite, and ordi