"The Information Problem"[0] has always been regarded as the insurmountable poison pill inside of Socialism's command economy, so it's completely unsurprising t

"The Information Problem"[0] has always been regarded as the insurmountable poison pill inside of Socialism's command economy, so it's completely unsurprising that it attracts engineers. The problem with solving the Information Problem, as Charles Stross notes[1], is that people will know that it was solved by other people. Thus a technical solution in a national context becomes a political proposition, where it's going to instantly die at the cash-laden hands of the rentiers. Engineering isn't the problem. It's within human means to solve the Information Problem, now, with current technology. One could argue that massive, vertically scaled companies like Wal Mart and Amazon have been doing exactly that for decades, and have - as Marx predicted - been making enormous profits from the interchange with adjacent economies that lack central planning[2]. But Walmart and Amazon don't need to deal with political problems. For the solution to be practical, long term, at the nation-state level, it has to appear motiveless. Naturally this is going to rub the nubbins of the AI boosters hard enough that they'll need towels for their chairs. A little note in closing. Beware anyone who tries to equate an economic tool with an ideological or - worse - moral position. Sometimes hammers are better than screwdrivers, and sometimes hex bolts are better than screws. They're all just systems tools to get things from where they get made to where they're needed. That's it. Nothing more. Anyone saying otherwise - that an economic system will make you gay, or will get you to heaven, or make people like you - is selling you something. Be skeptical. Just my $.02. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem [1] Via the character Gianni Vittoria in Accelerando, speaking as a former Italian minister of economics [2] Hell, does that describe the entire post-1970s rise of the entire finance industry? Eh. That's a little much.