CONCEPT
Conspicuous Computation
The AI-era display of productive power and technological fluency — quantified metrics serving social-sorting functions rather than measuring genuine value.
Conspicuous computation extends Veblen's conspicuous consumption framework to the AI economy's status displays. Where conspicuous consumption demonstrated command of resources through expensive purchases, conspicuous computation demonstrates command of AI-augmented capability through the public posting of productivity metrics — lines generated, commits shipped, applications launched, hours saved. These displays serve the same social function Veblen identified: establishing position in a status hierarchy by demonstrating proximity to sources of power and distance from productive necessity. The metrics are not primarily measures of value but media of display, communicating not what was produced but how it was produced — with what tool, at what speed, with what efficiency, signaling position in the AI-augmented economy's status hierarchy.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The December 2025 post by a Google principal engineer who received a working prototype in one hour typifies the pattern. She wrote "I am not joking, and this isn't funny" — a statement widely interpreted as evidence of AI capability. Veblen would observe it was also a display, establishing the engineer's relationship to