Rubber’s History Could Be a Window Into AI’s Future
The synthetic kind doesn’t grow on trees.
Photographer: Andre Malerba/Bloomberg
A 7,000-word piece of science fiction published on Substack by an obscure investment research firm helped trigger a worldwide market meltdown last week. Written by the 33-year-old founder of Citrini Research, the post describes a world where, only two years from now, AI had devastated major sectors of the global economy.
This dystopian future may well come to pass. If it does, however, it will be because of choices we make, not the technology itself. And our choices should be informed by history: This is not the first time, after all, that a synthetic product has threatened to displace a natural one. One of those products is blended into the tires of your car. Another is woven into the color of your jeans.