Intelligence curse

The intelligence curse is the risk that abundant machine intelligence changes who a system needs. It borrows from the resource curse: when wealth arrives from oil or diamonds rather than from citizens’ labour, governments can grow less answerable to those citizens. If intelligence becomes something firms buy from machines at scale, workers may stay capable while their work buys them less influence. This sits above the question of whether one person can stay employable. Expertise can still earn a place in the room. It does not guarantee a vote over what the room is for. The curse is not that intelligence disappears. It is that human intelligence may stop being the source power needs to draw from.