2 ms·
> Railroads lead to a distribution of capital into the society does it? I recall that railroads were monopolies (the vanderbilts). The gov't had to pass an act
by chii 1y ago
> Railroads lead to a distribution of capital into the society
does it? I recall that railroads were monopolies (the vanderbilts). The gov't had to pass an act to break them up, because there were price collusions and farmers were forced to pay a higher price for their transport of foodstuffs.
> Ai leads to a capital concentration on the hands of those that already have money
that is true for a lot of other capital intensive ventures. Why pick ai specifically?
And AI is less monopolistic - at least it's not a natural monopoly. There are competition, and there are alternatives.
- ruined 1y agorailroads are for moving freight, and you don't move freight if you're not selling goods. yes there were trust issues, but fundamentally a railroad requires a surrounding market. ai does not, and seems to suffer the "resource curse" https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Mak2kZuTq8Hpnqyzb/the-intelligence-curse https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Mak2kZuTq8Hpnqyzb/the-intell...
- niemandhier 1y agoRailroads needed steel and construction. They were giant infrastructure projects build by thousands of humans. Ai is not.
- chii 1y agohow many more people are involved in the entire supply chain of a single chip, compared to construction of rail roads?