What Do Jobs and Money Look Like in a Post-Human Economy?
Speakers
Laura Shin — Host of Unchained
— Unchained podcast host
Michael Casey — Chairman of the Advanced AI Society
— CoinDesk chief content officer
David Mattin — Co-founder of the Exponentialist
— futurist, Exponentialist co-founder
Summary
- The economy is shifting toward a "Post-Human" state where AI agents (autonomous software) become the primary economic actors, trading services and compute with one another.
- In this future, human labor constraints (time/effort) are replaced by physical constraints (energy/compute), making energy the ultimate currency.
- A "Proof of Control" sector will emerge as a massive investment theme. As AI chaos increases (hallucinations, unauthorized actions), corporations and regulators will demand cryptographic verification (blockchain, ZK proofs) to ensure humans retain sovereignty over AI agents.
- Entry-level knowledge work (coding, customer service, graphic design) is seeing a rapid hiring slowdown, signaling a structural short in these labor markets.
Trade Ideas
Shin notes significant geopolitical uncertainty (e.g., Venezuela) and explicitly states that central banks are buying gold, driving the price up. Gold is acting as the primary hedge against the destabilization of the current world order. As AI disrupts economies and geopolitics fragment, the "flight to safety" trade into hard assets strengthens. LONG as a macro hedge against the "chaos" phase of the AI transition. Stabilization of geopolitical conflicts or a shift of liquidity solely into digital store-of-value assets (Bitcoin).
Mattin mentions a startup called "Ambient" that is attempting to create an ecosystem with a token representing "units of machine intelligence." This aligns with his "Post-Human Economy" thesis where the currency is no longer fiat, but a measure of useful compute/intelligence work. WATCH as a potential early mover in the "Compute-as-Currency" vertical. Early-stage execution risk and competition from major L1 blockchains pivoting to compute.
Mattin mentions "Shellrazer," a token launched by an AI agent on the "Maltbook" platform, which gained traction purely through agentic social activity. This validates the thesis of "Agentic Markets"—economies where non-human actors create and trade value. While currently "shenanigans," it proves the concept of AI-generated assets. WATCH. This is highly speculative/gambling, but represents the first wave of "AI-Native Assets." Rug pulls, lack of liquidity, and the fact that the "agent" might just be a human larper (impersonator).
Michael Casey
Chairman of the Advanced AI Society
Casey highlights Hypercycle (where he is an advisor) as a network of independent nodes ("node factories") that allow AIs to exchange intelligence peer-to-peer securely. This represents a structural bet on the "Intelligence Economy," where the value lies in the secure transmission of data/inference between AI agents rather than just the LLM itself. WATCH. It is a specific play on the "internet of AI agents" thesis. Casey is an advisor (bias). The project is early-stage and competes with major centralized API ecosystems.
David Mattin
Co-founder of the Exponentialist
Mattin observes a rapid slowdown in entry-level hiring in specific sectors: customer service, graphic design, and coding. This is the "canary in the coal mine." If entry-level roles are vanishing, the business models of companies reliant on billing for human hours in these sectors (Business Process Outsourcing, dev shops) are structurally broken. AVOID or SHORT sectors highly exposed to commoditized human knowledge work. AI regulation could mandate "human-in-the-loop" requirements that slow down automation adoption.
Up Next
This Unchained (Chopping Block) video, published February 07, 2026, features Laura Shin, David Mattin, Michael Casey discussing GOLD, AMBIENT, SHELLRAZER, HYPERCYCLE, BPO. 5 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Laura Shin, David Mattin, Michael Casey · Tickers: GOLD, AMBIENT, SHELLRAZER, HYPERCYCLE, BPO