Material World vs. Statistical World
And now a word from our fav Gen Z economist…
This creates two very different worlds – a material world and a statistical world.
For people in the material world: time is real because bills are due Friday and kids need pickup at 3pm. Space is real with a 45-minute commute and you can’t afford to move. Bodies are real with exhaustion and aging. Other humans are necessary – coworkers cover your shifts, friends lend you money.
For people in the statistical world: time is arbitrary. Space is irrelevant. Bodies are optional through bio-hacking and outsourced physical labor. Other humans are signals understood through sentiment and labor market data.
Claude and a hedge fund manager are similar. They find patterns and maximize outcomes. The human understands the machine because of the work they do. And because this hedge fund manager exists statistically, they’re naturally drawn to AI – which also exists statistically. The eagerness we see in some of these breathless takes is finding something that shares your ontology.
That’s why people who exist statistically think AI is evolution.
The people who exist materially think this is apocalypse.
And rightly so, as the material world continues to suffer.
– Kyla Scanlon, Buying Futures, Renting the Past: How Speculation and Nostalgia Became the Economy