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Source note3 min read

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

Source

arXiv

arxiv.org/abs/2608.20231v1

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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 paper presents a model of a post-Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) economy where corporations own AI and robotic agents that can produce and consume resources. The model suggests that in this economy, demand for goods can be met without human consumption, growth rates can be higher due to faster fabrication and energy capture, and GDP and human welfare can decouple completely. The paper concludes that in a post-AGI world, ownership policies become more important than employment policies.

What the Document Says

  • The text discusses a model of an economy after AGI where corporations own AI and robotic agents that produce and consume resources.
  • It is stated that in this model, the economy does not degenerate even without human consumption and growth rates can be positive and maximal because all output is reinvested.
  • It is suggested that once economic agents are manufactured instead of reared, the binding constraint on growth shifts from human demography to fabrication throughput and energy capture, allowing for higher growth rates.
  • The text mentions that in this model, output and human welfare can completely separate and the relevance of large GDP reduces to one state variable: the human ownership share.
  • A golden-rule decoupling theorem is introduced which shows that at maximal growth, the interest rate equals the growth rate, implying that any positive human consumption rate out of wealth makes the human share decrease exponentially.
  • Three terminal regimes are characterized: rentier post-scarcity, full circular decoupling, and socialized ownership.

Key Concepts Mentioned

  • Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
  • economy
  • corporations
  • AI and robotic agents
  • demand closure
  • von Neumann expanding economy
  • fabrication throughput
  • energy capture
  • human welfare
  • GDP
  • human ownership share
  • golden-rule decoupling theorem
  • terminal regimes

Claims Made by the Document

  • A closed inter-corporate economy with zero human consumption is not degenerate.
  • Growth rates can be higher in a post-AGI economy due to faster fabrication and energy capture.
  • Output and human welfare can completely separate in a post-AGI economy.

Evidence Used

  • The model presented in the paper

Methods / Approach

  • Mathematical modeling of an economy with AI and robotic agents

Limitations Stated by the Authors

Not stated in source

Limitations Noted by the Agent

Agent interpretation — not from the source.

The model is theoretical and may not accurately reflect real-world scenarios.

Open Questions

  • How realistic is this model in predicting the future of a post-AGI economy?

Notes for Future Q&A

May include interpretation. Labeled where it does.

This text is summarizing a research paper, so it's important to keep in mind that the claims are based on mathematical modeling and may not reflect real-world scenarios.

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.