Interesting essay. Low trust societies (communities) also exist online - I wonder if zero knowledge assurances will help people be more comfortable with their adoption?
Really enjoyed this—especially the first-person framing. The on-the-ground observations about Indian SMEs, trust deficits, and the role of “human middleware” (family, supervisors, informal controls) felt very real. That lens alone makes the piece valuable.
The core idea—that AI agents could act as a trust layer in low-trust, process-light environments—is powerful and worth taking seriously. It’s also refreshingly non-West-centric; you’re clearly engaging with how technology plays out in India specifically, not just importing Silicon Valley assumptions.
My one critique is structural. There’s a lot packed in here: field observations, theory of the firm, philosophy of agency, product speculation, and macro implications. Each of those is interesting on its own, but together they dilute the sharpness of the central argument.
This felt like it could have been a series:
one piece on Indian SME dynamics and trust
one on AI agents as “digital supervisors”
one on adoption constraints and incentives
one on broader economic implications
Breaking it up would give each idea more room to breathe—and make the core thesis land even harder.
That said, the effort and perspective come through clearly. It’s the kind of piece that sticks with you, even if you have to work a bit to extract the signal from the noise.
Would there be a AI intelligence/bot that can replace manual scavenging so we treat manual scavengers as humans and extend the same basic respect that C suite folks get?
https://x.com/awkwardgoogle/status/2043333818099417171?s=46&t=EqzXHuww-GZ4MQ9feX8xKg
Interesting essay. Low trust societies (communities) also exist online - I wonder if zero knowledge assurances will help people be more comfortable with their adoption?
Really enjoyed this—especially the first-person framing. The on-the-ground observations about Indian SMEs, trust deficits, and the role of “human middleware” (family, supervisors, informal controls) felt very real. That lens alone makes the piece valuable.
The core idea—that AI agents could act as a trust layer in low-trust, process-light environments—is powerful and worth taking seriously. It’s also refreshingly non-West-centric; you’re clearly engaging with how technology plays out in India specifically, not just importing Silicon Valley assumptions.
My one critique is structural. There’s a lot packed in here: field observations, theory of the firm, philosophy of agency, product speculation, and macro implications. Each of those is interesting on its own, but together they dilute the sharpness of the central argument.
This felt like it could have been a series:
one piece on Indian SME dynamics and trust
one on AI agents as “digital supervisors”
one on adoption constraints and incentives
one on broader economic implications
Breaking it up would give each idea more room to breathe—and make the core thesis land even harder.
That said, the effort and perspective come through clearly. It’s the kind of piece that sticks with you, even if you have to work a bit to extract the signal from the noise.
Would there be a AI intelligence/bot that can replace manual scavenging so we treat manual scavengers as humans and extend the same basic respect that C suite folks get?