This post discusses what statements about comparative advantage say and what they do not say, and why comparative advantage does not save horses from getting sent to glue factories. It is only marginally about AI.

Eliezer Yudkowsky, in "The Sun is big, but superintelligences will not spare Earth a little sunlight", explains Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage and then writes:

Ricardo's Law doesn't say, "Horses won't get sent to glue factories after cars roll out."

Ricardo's Law doesn't say (alas!) that -- when Europe encounters a new continent -- Europe can become selfishly wealthier by peacefully trading with the Native Americans, and leaving them their land.

Their labor wasn't necessarily more profitable than the land they lived on.

Comparative Advantage doesn't imply that Earth can produce more with $77 of sunlight, than a superintelligence can produce with $77 of sunlight, in goods and services valued by superintelligences. It would [...]

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.