When my great grandfather was born in 1842 it wasn’t yet possible for a person to create a “limited liability corporation” that could last forever, accrue unlimited assets and powers that spanned generations.
A monarch or parliament could form such a corporation, like the Hudson Bay Company or the East Indies Trading Company, and it could grant them monopolies in certain locations or in certain types of commerce.
But it just wasn’t possible for an everyday ordinary person to form a corporation, raise capital, try to corner a market and create vast sums of wealth for shareholders.
Back then there we a lot of sole proprietors running businesses which didn’t last beyond their lifetime, although children would often inherit the wealth of their parents.
The mid-to-late 1800s saw the invention of modern corporations (many railroads, oil, mining, etc) followed by the emergence of trusts (and robber barons) and then trust busting. There were many attempts by entrepreneurs to build monopolies and many attempts by governments to limit monopoly power.
In the last two decades some corporations have grown more powerful than any previous corporations in world history. Many CEOs have more power, wealth and influence than the elected rulers or dictatorial rulers in most nation-states.
As an entrepreneur who believes in the free market and in the benefits of innovation and distribution, I love living today. The AI wave will create more value and more wealth than any previous technology wave.
As a humanities major, lover of history, and lover of humanity, I’m more concerned than ever before that the leading AI powered corporations will have an order of magnitude more power and influence than even the current leading tech companies.
It’s time for wise men and women in government to look at the lessons of history and find ways forward that balance the benefits of innovation with the need for positive societal outcomes.
The web3 era provides some possible paths forward, DAOs, blockchains, decentralization, open data and open source software — including truly open AI models — might provide huge value for all stakeholders without concentrating wealth and power in the hands of an unelected few.
I have one idea — to create a new type of Corporation called a D Corporation (for distributed or democratic) — that provides incentives for founders, funders and risk taking early employees, but results in long-term outcomes that are positive for society as a whole.
Stay tuned. More coming on this soon.
