Stuart Vyse

Armchair behavioral scientist. Columnist @SkeptInquirer. "marvelous writer and clear thinker" —Michael Shermer. THE USES OF DELUSION (2022). Room Rater 10/10.

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

The 2026 winners of the @center4inquiry's annual #sciencesaves video scholarship contest. Great stories of the value of science and scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $1,000. Congratulations! https://t.co/3kXhUi8JPM

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

tl;dr: Individual firms will employ AI and disemploy people, eliminating salaries. But employees are also consumers. The collective result is a new tragedy of the commons: Individually, firms have an incentive to employ AI. Collectively, they kill the consumer-driven economy.

[Jack @jackcoder0]

Two economists just published a mathematical proof that AI will destroy the economy.

Not might. Not could. Will — if nothing changes.

The paper is called "The AI Layoff Trap." Published March 2, 2026. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Boston University. Peer reviewed. Mathematically modeled.
The conclusion is one sentence.
"At the limit, firms automate their way to boundless productivity and zero demand."

An economy that produces everything. And sells it to nobody.
Here is how you get there.
A company fires 500 workers and replaces them with AI. A competitor fires 700 to keep up. Another fires 1,000. Every company is behaving rationally. Every company is following the incentives correctly. And every company is building a trap for itself.

Because the workers who were fired were also customers.
When they lose their jobs faster than the economy can absorb them, they stop spending. Consumer demand falls. Companies respond by cutting costs — which means automating more workers — which means less spending — which means more falling demand — which means more automation.

The loop has no natural exit.
The researchers tested every proposed solution. Universal basic income. Capital income taxes. Worker equity participation. Upskilling programs. Corporate coordination agreements.
Every single one failed in the model.
The only intervention that worked: a Pigouvian automation tax — a per-task levy charged every time a company replaces a human with AI, forcing them to price in the demand they are destroying before they pull the trigger.

No government has implemented this. No major economy is seriously discussing it.
Meanwhile the numbers are already tracking the curve. 100,000 tech workers laid off in 2025. 92,000 more in the first months of 2026. Jack Dorsey fired half of Block's workforce and said publicly: "Within the next year, the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion."
Nobody is doing anything wrong. Companies are following their incentives perfectly. That is exactly the problem.

Rational behavior. At scale. Simultaneously. With no mechanism to stop it.
Two economists built the math. The math leads to one place.

Source: Falk & Tsoukalas · Wharton School + Boston University ·

[ABC News @ABC]

Crowds gathered on West 42nd Street in New York to witness the "Manhattanhenge" phenomenon — when the sun sets in alignment with the city's street grid. https://t.co/S6XP0qYoHc

[Steve Futterman @sfutterman]

CBS RADIO'S FINALE - 1927-2026 - The final CBS News Radio broadcast. This was the 11.31pm eastern time broadcast. The anchor is Christopher Cruise. From the Broadcast Center on West 57th. It was a pretty good 99 year run. @CBSNews @CBSRadio

[Caitlin Flanagan @CaitlinPacific]

They used to say organic chemistry saves more lives than penicillin

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

—Charles Sanders Peirce, "Fixation of Belief" (1877).

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

"Thus, if it be true that death is annihilation, then the man who believes that he will certainly go straight to heaven when he dies, provided he have fulfilled certain simple observances in this life, has a cheap pleasure which will not be followed by the least disappointment.".

[Skeptical Inquirer @SkeptInquirer]

Stuart Vyse cautions, "The supporters of autism pseudoscience have kicked it up a notch."
https://t.co/eYvvusndtt

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

The anti-vaxx crowd is anti-needle stick AND anti-nose stick. (But pro-cancellation.)

[Andrea @and_kell]

@stuartvyse @AmySFLutz @comm4allorg Amy brought this upon herself. Don't get upset when people fight back. Many kids/adults are thriving with Spelling/typing. She has stuck her nose where it doesn't belong & is not welcome.

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

It turns out, they don't really support Communication 4 All. They support communication for all but the critics of FC.

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

Since my piece went to press, the bullying of @AmySFLutz has continued. The lobbying group @comm4allorg has launched a petition aimed at her job at U Penn and at deplatforming her at the Autism Parenting Summit next week. https://t.co/pWTpAb5dhl

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

My latest column for @SkeptInquirer, "Under Attack from the Armies of Autism Pseudoscience," covers the organized campaign to promote facilitated communication and challenge the science. https://t.co/hqM7mUrSBy

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

My latest column for @SkeptInquirer, "Under Attack from the Armies of Autism Pseudoscience," covers the organized campaign to promote facilitated communication and challenge the science. https://t.co/hqM7mUrSBy

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Give Us the Aliens https://t.co/40PuoPyOPW via @NYTOpinion

[Ken Burns @KenBurns]

We are announcing today that The American Revolution will stream for free in its entirety on all PBS platforms from May 25th through July 12. Hope you have a chance to watch, ideally with friends and family, as you think about our 250th anniversary this July 4th. https://t.co/c8fc6Sldj5

[Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem]

I lost the bet but this race was worth it.

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

The great @AmySFLutz in the @nytimes on the false hope of facilitated communication: “Profound Autism Is Difficult Enough Without This Debunked Method” https://t.co/vWimY0idnl via @NYTOpinion

[Roger Parloff @rparloff]

In the 60s series Get Smart, Don Adams played Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. I never got the joke till today.

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

I did have an opportunity to thank him at an event we both attended in DC. Made my day.

[Kerry Kennedy @KerryKennedyRFK]

Are you alive today? If you didn’t die from COVID, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, swine flu, anthrax, tuberculosis, malaria, or other diarrheal diseases, you have the great Dr. Tony Fauci to thank.

[James T. Todd @jimtemu]

A very important piece by Stuart Vyse on the Woody Brown scandal. It seems we’re doing Rom Houben over again, with journalists having utterly failed to learn the lesson that time—and the time before that and the time before that and the time before that. https://t.co/5DRoeYWueC

[Stuart Vyse @stuartvyse]

In case you missed that this administration was innumerate the first time, they are happy to show you again. 🤷

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

RFK Jr: "A Democratic senator claimed it's mathematically impossible to have a drug drop by 600%. I said, 'Well, if the drug was $100 and it raises to $600, that would be a 600% rise. If it drops from $600 to $100, that's a 600% savings.'"

Trump: "Right"