You know that moment? When you're sitting in some vehicle, at a red light or stop sign—waiting? The light strikes green, the intersection is clear, the right of way is yours. Off with the brakes then onto the throttle.
For the briefest of moments between releasing the brakes and applying the throttle, just before the forward lurch, there is that weightlessness. That space between not quite still and not quite moving. Here there is a certain stillness. You have the full expectation of acceleration. You know what is about to happen. It is almost as if your stomach drops—if you think to notice. You might get butterflies if this is your first time.
Here in this stillness is where I have been suspended. Weightless in limbo, stuck in zugzwang, staring into the abyss haunted by this realization:
HELP WANTED—Humans Need Not Apply.
I look out and the world moves around me in slow motion. Not a single person has the faintest clue of what is just over the horizon, just on the peripheral. Collectively, we are approaching this moment of stillness now.
The day the world stands still is sooner here.
If I told you that not a single word of this article was generated by an AI, would you believe me? Would it matter?
All humans—and typically all biological entities—in our world, on Earth, can be understood as a very simple process of biomechanical operation: in their sleep state they are inactive or unaware of actions—if any, during their wakeful state they act with some degree of focused, directed intention.
When awake humans shift into a state of moderate to high dynamism. They are responsive to the environment and attuned to the sensations of which their body elicits—generally in some synergy with their local environment. Further these beings are afforded a range of self-directed actions many scholars, psychologists and philosophers might describe as "free will".
This free will is conditioned upon the degrees of freedom granted to one by their scope of knowledge, potential of intelligence and capacity to act upon machinations conjured in mind.
Until this point, one could argue none of these processes are particularly unique to the species known as Homo Sapien. However, there exists a key differentiator that a simpler creature with its own machinations and reflexes, might not possess. The ability to pull something from nothing. The ability to create.
Create we did. From tribes to economies, we created tools and language, ways to manipulate our environment, monuments and movements, art and great wonders, communities into societies. We became possessed by this spirit of creation.
We created ideas that would move us and tools to shape our surroundings, we made artifacts to show others, through all of this we invented something truly special. We created and distributed content. At scale.
Language and art became the foundation of our living technology stack of effective communication. Unlike other species, humans invented increasingly sophisticated forms of effective communication which capture, pass on, and convey content—from the past into the future. Initially as an accumulation of memories, of stories, of knowledge and sometimes even entertainment.
Take for instance this text that occupies your attention now. I, the author of this content, wish to capture and convey some abstract thought or series of them. I decided the best way to do so was (is) to write. Perhaps to clear my mind from some haunting spirit we call "derealization", to allow for more abstract thoughts to take the place of these, maybe just to see where this takes me or send a message to my future self (hey there future me).
Vocalized language likely preceded written forms for some time until a genius thought to store information outside the mind itself. I will say, the jury is still out on this particular debate.
Nonetheless this is likely a necessary step in the arc of an intelligent species' development from a generally binary and reactionary species to a cognitively sophisticated, complex and adaptive one. Transforming symbolic forms of thought into compressed discretized packages that can be passed along to another.
I digress; this evolutionary development topic is conversation for another time.
The main point of this language pontification is not merely an intellectual indulgence. It is to acknowledge, blessed by the spirit of innovation, this living technology of effective communication; language.
Personally? I see it as humanity's greatest ever achievement. Our greatest ever invention. Our greatest ever discovery.
With this great power of language, we became like gods among beasts of the lands and monsters of the deep and creatures of the skies. We could store knowledge and scale intelligence beyond the individual.
Our Prometheus fire! And now? The fire is speaking back. The machines are talking. AI has a lot to say.
Language allowed us to organize and maneuver ourselves in a manner unlike any time since before it was introduced. We could convey the machinations, hidden behind the folds of one's gray matter, in ways that are arguably much greater than the creations which are cast from the minds themselves.
There were things, then there were the associations tied to these things—under a commonly known utterance. One using those known utterances accurately conjured in another's mind precisely the thing which should be invoked. Such that a mutual understanding for context about a thing like 'water' or 'ground' or 'plant' or 'up' should be understood as—albeit "virtually".
How about this: water ground plant up.
What a concept!
Let's take a moment to digest all that has gone on with that simple collection of discretized-symbolic-thought-things—known today as words. One could interpret this group of words to mean a multitude of things.
It could mean: "to the ground goes water and up sprouts a plant."
What about an instruction? "You. Water ground. Plant up!" Ah but what about the seed? We don't have a word for that, yet, but you are a fast learner.
Through this simple yet comprehensive exercise you may begin to see how humans could—and very much did—project, plan, coordinate and administer change that would reach beyond themselves and direct the very course of their future! All with an increasing amount of intention, with more sophistication, as time passed. We created a protocol to establish and meet, intellectually, on common ground. So, suppose these protocols established themselves...
Now I know what you're thinking.
OMG. This author is still going on about the language bit! I have better things to do than get lectured about how language helps people communicate and coordinate.
But trust me, if you use language for any purpose at all, this read is worth your time.
Through this protocol things had titles, titles had things. Very quickly one may come to understand how the linking of one such thing to another such thing might cause an explosion of linking things with other things. A combinatorial explosion.
We now need a word to represent the conceptual link of one thing to another thing. We know this as a "relation". So here we have a protocol for linking the representative-discretization of a particular symbolic-thought-object with that of another representative-discretized-symbolic-thought-object, and now a way to understand that when a 'this' is linked with a 'that' we have a 'those'.
For the more perceptive of us, you might identify a kind of proto mathematics forming due to all these combinatorics. Yet still this tangent worth exploring is beyond the scope of the current article. So, here is another one of those delightful segues to take us out from such a rich territory worth exploring, just for you:
I digress.
While I am writing this in and through the lens of the gawdy language known as English, I must confess that it may be the best je ne sais pas quoi... vehicle in which to transport and deliver my think piece to you. If only for its simplicity and directness.
At least until we are all unceremoniously round up and implanted with some Brain-Computer-Interface something or other that enables near instant transference of thought packages from one to another. An unlikely event, but one that evokes just enough dread and disgust to keep you reading on.
So, we read on!
titles, discretized-symbolic-thought-objects, relations, oh my!
Well, where's this all headed, Dorothy?
I hear you thinking. Bear with me.
See what I did there? Lions, tigers, bears... bear with me... a bear where? How? A joke is no fun if it has to be explained!
Language allowed us to place thought-objects within others and form complex relations of said thought-objects with thought-objects in them. Then place these contraptions near other such thought-objects with thought-objects in them and so on (like what I did with that joke just now).
All of this building to complex amalgamations of multi-interdependent thought-object-relations. These complex relation-webs gave rise to the concept of organization which in turn gave rise to even more complex organization-relation-webs. And here we have arrived at the idea or concept of a network. All this linking of ideas birth yet more sophisticated cognitive capabilities and so on. A story so beautiful that it writes itself. So beautiful that it writes itself...
The ability to organize should not be overlooked either. This organization granted us the skills to separate! What did we separate? The kinds of complex relations between things into manageable and intuitive divisions. That is to say, we grouped like things into categories and organized them. We categorized.
We could distinguish between core aspects that drive much of what humans would do while in their "wakeful state" from environmental phenomena. Yet still the inkling of even greater abstract concepts would impress upon the more introspective of us during this expansion.
When bored we could gather round and share memories. We could reminisce and tell stories. When hungry we would utter our need for food to those around us and they would understand! Or we could organize parties to hunt for food. We could organize our food and categorize inedible persuasions. We would then have the genius idea to collect more than we could eat in a single session. We would organize our efforts. We could organize our minds. We could organize ourselves with other selves. We could organize ourselves organizing ourselves. We became an organization. How incredible!
Soon the—rather obvious in hindsight—realization that one is a unique thing in even greater things sets in. We are but a single thing in a network, in a vast sea, in a choppy ocean of other things.
Oh. My. God.
God!
WHERE ART THOU GOD?!
You can nearly hear the early human communicators think. Let's take a moment. Please organize your thoughts about what just happened. Make the mental leaps.
Here we have:
Discretized-Symbolic-Thought-Objects → Utterances & Words → Words with Words → Words with Relations → Web of Relations → Cognitive BOOM! → Individuation → Coordination → Organization → Web of Related Organizations → Categories → Categorization → Networks
Now, I'm not one to beat a dead horse, and there are still bridges we need to cross in order for me to do so. That is to say, I will burn the dead horse when I get there, or however that phrase goes.
This realization is of high material portance—a support that will allow everything that follows in this article to fall into place. Dare I say, it is of the highest material importance. So, import this progression into that noodling noggin of yours and digest.
We will accelerate—messily and rapidly—from here on out.
Please keep your hands, feet, and mischievous machinations of mind inside this thought piece, take breaks as needed, and sip some water while you're at it.
All of this separating begets the division of labour and soon after communities with role differentiation that leads to specialization and then economies! Can you believe it? Economies give rise to the formation of directed, highly specialized sub-groups from within which all productive individuals who are members of this amorphous body benefit. The whole literally becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
'I do this thing well and you do that thing well. Perhaps I share some of my productive outputs and you share some of your productive outputs. We are proportionally better off for this barter and trade than if we had never even met!'
From what ifs to as ifs and as ifs to if you got that I got this!
And to think we haven't even circled back to the self-organizing thought machine that is known as AI, yet.
Oh, my me oh my #&$**@! There has to be a higher being I can invoke beyond God that I can curse at this point.
Oh, and they tell me that that is blasphemy whatever that means and I probably shouldn't have this thought.
To hell with it!
I can practically hear you think.
Hey, I told you to keep your hands, feet, and machinations of mind INSIDE this thought piece. Dear heavens. Look at what you have done. Look at where we are now!
Everything. Everywhere. All. At. Once!
Okay that was a lot. You still with me? You know at this point the rest isn't even for you the reader (it is). This is for me. So, you may go on with yourself as you please or don't. I couldn't care less, I have struck a vein!
Economies. We sprawled out into dense organizations of individuals who filled specific roles to perform productive tasks necessary to support the rest of the community. Where initially, the main benefit was simply a better quality of life for all members. These productive individuals soon found themselves to be proficient in some particular tasks over others. This focus on doing tasks that one is best at can be thought of as skill building or specialization.
Someone born to a community or immediate family (or maybe just individually proficient) skilled in bending metal became the blacksmith, those skilled at constructing became the mason, others still who were good at organization and communication became the administrator. These people would be carriers of these skill sets for life. (I can hear your gears turning). There were roles that needed filling, and everyone had their part to play. In this way one followed a predefined life path and became. They had a very narrow purpose.
In earlier times one might sooner specialize in the demands provided for by their environment and their particular community. They might fill the roles set out for them. While in more contemporary times one might decide how they ought to lead their lives, in what they specialize and how they ought to contribute to their communities. And the greater economy, and greater still, the societies for which they find themselves appendages of. You might choose a path and embark on becoming your own carrier of a particular skill set that will take you through life. That is to say, you might carve out a career for yourself.
So then, what about you? What have you specialized in? Where do your machinations drive the objects of your desire? What piques your curiosity?
Maybe you find yourself in a moment of decision. Charting your own career path. Building up your own skill set. Perhaps you're a seasoned career person getting a beat on the whole AI paradigm shift. Maybe you are in between jobs taking a temp check of the whole "job market", or what's left of it. You could be a retiree laughing—or sobbing, at us scoundrels attempting to bottle the ineffable. Wherever you may find yourself in the stillness of this moment I urge you to continue.
Shall we?
That same spirit of innovation I mentioned earlier—that nudged homo sapiens to develop effective communication—did not go gentle into that good night. It did indeed rage against that dying of the light.
Now that early economies—networks of organizations of people who were carriers of life-long specialty skills bartering and trading productive outputs and resources—existed, there, impressed upon the more introspective of us, was a need and a vision and a will to find inefficiencies and replace them with innovations. These innovations span and touch nearly every facet of modern life as we know it.
The obvious areas are buildings with running water or smart devices connected to the "world wild web" ;) or automobiles that take us from here to there.
At some point along this dizzying path the necessity for keeping track of all this extra productivity needed to be created.
From histories that existed in mind alone, eventually we developed systems to keep diligent track over resources and productive outputs. We invented a method to keep a count of things. The most robust system coming in the form of detailed records called ledgers. We kept many of these counts and we kept on a'counting (we were not that creative back then, cut some slack). Thus, the practice of accounting for these productive outputs and resources began.
Soon to follow was the transfer of value (or wealth) due to these resources and mediums of exchange via a token with the representative fractional value of some amount of productive work, between individuals. We have ourselves a budding complex and adaptive network of communities with objects that represent some amount of value!
What a leap. Instead of simply bartering and trading productive outputs or trading some imprecise number of resources for others, one could build and store representative tokens of value which were equal to some fraction of productive output. With enough of these representative tokens, one could compel another to trade some valuable thing or resource on the trust that this token of representative value provides the same compulsion in another. We have currency, we have money!
One with skills could now be compelled to perform work for money. Suppose someone with the means, the money that is, wanted a specialty item. They could approach some skilled worker and task them to apply their skills in return for an "honest wage". The one with money could hire skilled workers.
Through this method of hiring one with the money could then combine a once distributed force of workers' productivity, into focused efforts and focused productive outputs for some purpose. Often to produce some other good or service in return for money itself.
With enough organizational skills, smarts, and money, one could gather a workforce. Somewhere along this path, with enough money one might even own the very means of productive output itself. You have just witnessed the birth of free trade, industry and capitalism. Hell yeah baby!
A crucial question might be asked here:
Where in the world would one find people who all at once, might need work, or need to show off their skills and items for sale, or need to hire individuals for special means, or need a place to rest and eat?
Not to worry, from sporadic rural communities, we had begun to form denser population centre's by now. We formed villages and trade routes between them, then we decided to fill in the gaps between these villages or just move to more densely populated areas over an increasingly larger area. These dense population centres became known as cities.
Sometimes these moves were out of necessity because the local area was sparse in resource or due to force. Force by that of an attacking group of violent individuals or more organized warriors from an opposing army. A tale as old a time. Might I add people generally don't like to be attacked, maimed and killed.
So, what do we do about this? We form protection for the rest of the group, and these protectors would be rewarded for their efforts is what we do. We needed someone or something to keep order within the community too—so that someone else doesn't go on a rampage within a community and take all the goods by force, or worse.
Here we arrive at the concept of a kingdom or nation and more recently—reletively speaking—governments.
In order to participate in these more abstract organizations of collections of people, one would be compelled to provide a portion of their productive outputs or resources to the ruling organization. In return for this provision of resources they would be granted a place within this network for some benefits. These provisions to the ruling organization are known today as taxes, formerly called fees.
I should mention that it took humans quite some time, and quite some pain, and quite some comedy, and quite some tragedy, to get to constructing the more stable complex economic systems and dense population centres and thus the governments we have today. Let it be known that I am breezing through millennia of struggles and stories, lessons and learning, empires risen and wealth's a squandered to get to it.
There really is a lot to say here. If you want to study these epics—I do implore you to do so—after all of this you are one after my own heart. I cannot fault you for being at least mildly annoyed with yet another aside. I will say this journey is quite delightful though.
For fear of losing you, reader, in this complex web of relations let us realize what has gone on. Pleasantries and digressions aside—by using this technology of language, I have built from the ground up a place for us to meet on rich, intellectual common ground. What an ability, what a privilege.
You have just sped run packing in that noodling noggin of yours nearly all of humanity's greatest hits. Those that have provided for the foundations of the very modern life as we know it. You, with that big brain of yours, now contain a complex Discretized-Symbolic-Thought-Thing in your own mind. You earned it for persevering through my apparent meandering. It can be a lot to take in. For whatever it is worth—I am proud of you.
So, to recap:
Discretized-Symbolic-Thought-Objects → Utterances & Words → Words with Words → Words with Relations → Web of Relations → Cognitive BOOM! → Individuation → Coordination → Organization → Web of Related Organizations → Categories → Categorization → Networks → People Organizing into Communities → People Specializing into Niche Roles → Career Paths & Specializations → Networks of Specialized Communities of Niche Productivities → Barter and Trade Networks → Economies → Representative-Discretized-Productive-Work-Outputs → Ledgers → Accounting → Representative Tokens of Value → Currency → Money → Hiring → Jobs → Work Force → Economic BOOM! → Villages → Cities → Kingdoms → Fees → Complex Societies → Early Governments → Taxes → Public Benefits
Now I know I have—for both of our sakes—neglected to mention the nitty gritty particulars of our worlds beaten and battered histories. That is a topic for another time. I will make some honourable mentions here though.
Are you strapped in? It doesn't matter. Light's green. Necessity is at the wheel, Wants and Needs rides shotgun. Pedal to the metal—stomach drop!
Beaded boards counting money, tables keeping scores, memories turned to ledgers, & King collecting fees. More money, more productivity.
With all the extra efficiency we wanted more—needed more. We needed better tools, better processes, better methods, we needed everything more better! The better we got the more insights we gained. The ideas got sharper, the content more slicker, the people got richer, systems more quicker, our thinking less scattered.
Capital catalyzing innovation—new technologies spawned superior systems. Superior systems spur efficient processes—specialized knowledge birthing experts, focused research bearing institutions.
A once tiny snowball incrementally increasing quality of life, has transformed into a full-blown avalanche of radical paradigm shifting events.
We tamed the ground for food, the beasts for strength, we tamed the fire to fashion great tools, and our minds for great ideas!
Not unlike any other new life growing up, we had our stages, our defining eras. We grew through the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the age of antiquities, history becomes a blur. As much as I would like to delve into each of the ages, we need to fast forward.
We zoom through the industrial age and find ourselves presently in age of information. What comes next is anyone's guess, though I have my hunches. Arguably what comes next is, without a doubt, the most exciting age of them all.
Yet here were are. Suspended in this moment of stillness. This moment between moments. This weightlessness.
So, how did we get to where we are today? We will not be spending much time here, but I will lay the high-level groundwork.
2400 BCE: The Abacus → 9th Century CE: Al-Khwarizmi and the First Algorithms → 17th Century: Leibniz's Binary System → 1830s: Babbage's Analytical Engine → 1843: Ada Lovelace's Notes → 1936: Turing's Turing Machine → 1937: Shannon's Digital Circuits → 1943: McCulloch and Pitts' Neural Network Model → 1940s: Mauchly and Eckert's Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) the First Electronic Computer → 1948: Shannon's Information Theory → 1950s: Rosenblatt's Perceptron → 1950s: Fortran → 1960s: Integrated Circuit → 1960s-1970s: Creation of the Internet → 1971: Intel 4004 Microprocessor → 1980s: Revival of Neural Networks with Backpropagation → 1989: World Wide Web → 2017: Google's Transformer Architecture → 2018: OpenAI's Generative Pre-trained Transformer → Present Day
As each of these crucial innovation's productivity compounded, we got closer to a future where machines would soon liberate humans from the mundane.
Now to burn dead that beat horse.
Modern AI holds all of this. In mind. All at once. And then some.
Its specialty is, in some twisted abstract sense, choreography. Choreography in and through, of and for that which its purpose is so meticulously defined. It becomes that for which it is built.
For some AI, language is its specialty. We call these Large Language Models (LLM). For others, in addition to language, they are granted vision and audio processing capabilities. We call these Large Multimodal Models (LMM). Some of these AI have broadly scoped capacities, others narrowly scoped capabilities (Artificial Narrow Intelligence).
AI writes code that imbues our technical and electronic devices with sound logic. Others generate words. Others, still, generate granular recommendations for the next best strategic decision, delivered in the form of whatever fancies the decision maker. And more are being created with each passing hour.
Do you see now, reader? My reason for all of this. My inability to make a step!? The carefully articulated layering of my arguments littered with jokes and flowers just so I might hope, beyond all hope, to keep your delicate attention. To build this monument of complexity in your mind just for you to realize that AI does all of this.
Better than you can. Better than I can. Plus, more. All that card stacking just to topple it in a single fell swoop.
The AI are here.
And they are eating your homework. They are generating your words. Curating your social media feeds. Making your cute cat videos. Designing your memes. Tracing your route to work.
They are serving you thoughts and they are having them too.
You may be niche, but they are more specialized than you.
"Here lies the Skilled Worker, born of specialization, raised on routine, devoured by automation. lmao RIP."
Born: Necessity
Died: Efficiency
Cause of Death: Model update v13.37
Survived by:
- Automation (thriving)
- AI Productivity Suite (just got a promotion)
- The Last Human Freelancer (currently under review)
Donations in their honor may be made to the Universal Basic Income Foundation (if it ever gets approved).
"They worked hard so you don't have to. Because now, you literally can't."
ChatGPT:
Would you like me to refine the eulogy?
well this kinda kicks rocks doesn't it? how can we compete in a world that builds itself? when the code auto-completes, cars are self-driven, companies artificially grow organically.
if we take a scrutinizing eye to the whole thing, i'm certain things have always been this way. the environment would always find ways to incorporate the changes within it. change is the only constant in our dynamic world.
we have always been adaptable to our surroundings. for me to deliver this think piece to you is evidence enough of this fact.
the question still remains, what now?
you could pray to your god that you aren't the first to get rinsed by this tsunami of change. you may find pleasure in the little things and wait patiently for the world to pass you by, to catch up with you. you may become stony and apathic—unresponsive to all the changes. these are valid options, but none that i would do personally. they are silly self-soothing coping mechanisms in my view. you might as well find a bed at your nearest... mental hospital, strap into a straitjacket, find a padded room, sit in the corner and rock yourself into a lull.
my read on the whole transition? things will never be "the same". but when has this ever been the case? sameness and predictability are tenants of an artificial system. so be comforted in the fact that we are not in a static environment with unchangeable processes and instead in a dynamic and changeable environment. what a privilege!
temp check with yourself. be honest about your situation, take it all in. take stock, plan and adapt.
if you have been paying attention you might already see my own frame on the whole adaptability thing.
you must become possessed.
what a wild ride, and to think we haven't even started really accelerating yet. and too what a gift language has provided us.
from simple creatures oohing and ahhing, grunting and belching to meticulously organized and coordinated choreographers. we really ought to give ourselves and each other a pat on the back. sure, we have our differences but, in my view, there is more that binds us than that separates us. it's all in our heads anyway.
technology is on a roll. it has been for quite some time. it isn't just limited to the glowing screens or humming wires either. we have always been builders, creators, innovators, collaborators, thinkers, doer's... it has just gotten a little tough to see.
i'm serious about technology freeing us from mundane activities that take too much of our time, too much of our attention, too much of our freedom. we created systems to help us, but these days it feels like those very systems built to free us have instead trapped us. not any more.
the only way out is through, and the only way through is together. i want people like you, who understand the crucial time we are in, in my corner of the future.
well, what have we here? a curious one? since you are still here and i haven’t scared you away just yet, trust me i tried, you must be wondering where you fit into all of this change.
i have my thoughts. i have been tinkering and experimenting with all this AI whatnot. i believe i have some of the best frames for navigating and adapting through this period.
i have built grounded frameworks and methods that will put you in the front of the wave, on the frontier, back in control.
if you would like to find out more i encorage you to join our website launch notification list. there you will find everything you need to get started, from temp checks, perspectives, explainers, reframer’s, ai prompts and prompt-chains, workflows, automations, and more, much much more.
the choice is yours.
Redi? Ad Astra.
—Dallas