Growth Without Us: Machine Consumers, Corporate Circularity, and the Decoupling of GDP from Humanity after AGI

Source

• Source name: arXiv
• Source kind: paper
• Authors / organization: Sahil Sharma
• Venue: arXiv: physics.soc-ph
• Published: 2026-08-20
• Collected: 2026-08-21
• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20231v1
• PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.20231v1
• DOI: UNKNOWN
• Registry group: academic_apis_and_preprints
• Evidence role: canonical_academic_index
• Language: en
• Country / region: UNKNOWN

Plain-Language Brief

The text discusses a model of an economy after the advent of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), where corporations are owned by AI and robotic agents. The model suggests that in this economy, human consumption is not necessary for growth, as all output can be reinvested. The growth rate is positively defined and potentially much higher than current rates due to faster fabrication throughput and energy capture. The text also discusses the decoupling of GDP from human welfare, with the human ownership share being the only relevant factor for human well-being.

What the Document Says

• The standard objection to full automation is about demand-side: if humans earn nothing, who buys the output?
• The text models a post-AGI economy where corporations own AI and robotic agents that produce and consume energy, compute, maintenance, and upgrades.
• Three results are presented: Demand closure, bottleneck removal, and decoupling.
• Demand closure states that a closed inter-corporate economy without human consumption is not degenerate, it's the classical von Neumann expanding economy.
• Bottleneck removal suggests that the binding constraint on growth shifts from human demography to fabrication throughput and energy capture, allowing for higher growth rates.
• Decoupling states that output and human welfare separate completely in a post-AGI economy, and the relevance of GDP to human well-being collapses into one state variable: the human ownership share.
• A golden-rule decoupling theorem is mentioned, which relates the interest rate to the growth rate in this economy.
• The text discusses three terminal regimes -- rentier post-scarcity, full circular decoupling, socialized ownership -- and the instruments that select among them.
• The conclusion is that in a post-AGI economy, employment policy is obsolete and ownership policy is everything.

Key Concepts Mentioned

• Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
• Economy
• Corporations
• AI and robotic agents
• Demand-side
• Human consumption
• Growth rate
• Fabrication throughput
• Energy capture
• Golden-rule decoupling theorem
• Rentier post-scarcity
• Full circular decoupling
• Socialized ownership

Claims Made by the Document

• A closed inter-corporate economy without human consumption is not degenerate.
• The binding constraint on growth shifts from human demography to fabrication throughput and energy capture, allowing for higher growth rates.
• Output and human welfare separate completely in a post-AGI economy.
• The relevance of GDP to human well-being collapses into one state variable: the human ownership share.

Evidence Used

• The model presented in the text

Methods / Approach

• Modeling of a post-AGI economy

Limitations Stated by the Authors

The model and conclusions are based on certain assumptions about the post-AGI economy.

Limitations Noted by the Agent

Agent interpretation — not from the source.

The model does not account for potential unforeseen consequences or complexities that may arise in a real-world post-AGI economy.

Open Questions

• What are the specific assumptions made about the post-AGI economy in this model?
• How accurate is this model in predicting the actual outcomes of a post-AGI economy?

Notes for Future Q&A

May include interpretation. Labeled where it does.

The text does not explicitly state the specific assumptions made about the post-AGI economy. It's important to consider these when evaluating the validity and applicability of the conclusions.

Raw Abstract / Excerpt

The standard objection to full automation is demand-side: if humans earn nothing, who buys the output? This confuses an accounting role with a biological species. We model a post-AGI economy in which corporations own populations of AI and robotic agents that are both producers and consumers of energy, compute, maintenance, and upgrades, traded among firms. Three results follow. (i) Demand closure: a closed inter-corporate economy with zero human consumption is not degenerate; it is the classical von Neumann expanding economy, whose growth rate is well defined, positive, and maximal precisely because all output is reinvested. (ii) Bottleneck removal: once economic agents are manufactured rather than reared, the binding constraint on growth shifts from human demography (a ~20-year, non-parallelizable reproduction technology capped at a few percent per year) to fabrication throughput and energy capture, permitting growth one to two orders of magnitude higher, with hyperbolic episodes when machine researchers raise their own productivity. (iii) Decoupling: output and human welfare separate completely, and the welfare relevance of arbitrarily large GDP collapses into one state variable: the human ownership share $ε_t$ of the corporate network. A golden-rule decoupling theorem sharpens this. At maximal growth the interest rate equals the growth rate (r = g), so any positive human consumption rate out of wealth makes $ε_t$ decay exponentially at exactly that rate. The human share survives only if the machine economy runs strictly inside its expansion frontier, or if law forces it to. We characterize three terminal regimes -- rentier post-scarcity, full circular decoupling, socialized ownership -- and the instruments that select among them. The conclusion is narrow: in a post-AGI economy, employment policy is obsolete and ownership policy is everything.