Nice piece! I have a Master's in Economics and I share your criticisms of the discipline. However, my reaction is that if there is AGI to the point that AIs have personhood/ownership rights (which would be a significant transformation of our legal system), and AIs are adept enough that they can trivially modify human preferences, the answer to the question of "what does the study of economics look like in such a world" is, honestly, "who cares?"
I think the purpose of economics is to allow humans to try to improve well being for humans... in a sufficiently ... (read more)
Nice piece! I have a Master's in Economics and I share your criticisms of the discipline. However, my reaction is that if there is AGI to the point that AIs have personhood/ownership rights (which would be a significant transformation of our legal system), and AIs are adept enough that they can trivially modify human preferences, the answer to the question of "what does the study of economics look like in such a world" is, honestly, "who cares?"
I think the purpose of economics is to allow humans to try to improve well being for humans... in a sufficiently ... (read more)