Another amazing article! I had my computer science class read this article today and multiple students said the article and discussion we had was the best class they have ever had. I told them my goal is to help them master the fundamentals of each abstraction layer so they can learn how to leverage the outputs of AI at each layer better than 99% of other high schoolers. This should be the goal of every teacher and every school. Working to turn your ideas into a classroom system than any high school teacher can use. You are shaping the future more than you know!
Brilliant ideas, I love the move into a slowness and your pieces resonate quite deeply!
I've thought through the place of humans in an post-AGI society and came to the characteristic that I think will be superordinate: Authenticity. It's possible this is the next 'layers' reigning spirit.
So long as we have our authenticity, and our unique combination of experiences, interests, and ideas, we will remain relevant to one another.
And even if the AI's become so good, so good that they can predict the next thought to populate an authentic persons thought pattern, I think humans will still enjoy the experience of following a friend on their authentic journey and seeing them intertwine their thoughts, experiences, and unique combo of ideas, much like I do with you here :)
To your point "taste becomes much more important than execution." I think the tech world could learn from the art world here. Art still values exact precision and execution, but not in the same way it did in say, the 1700's? It may even go further back. The taste component elicits emotion, and hundreds of years of paintings, sculptures, etc. have elicited more emotion from humans than precise, mechanical, representations of the world. That kind of art is still valuable, but so is the abstract, wild, weird, etc. Art can be niche, it can require context, but none of that eliminates the value, it just means that some value isn't always immediately, intuitively, recognized by everyone. To be fair, I am not quite sure I can name anything aside from food and shelter that may meet those requirements. Value, and the measure of it, is almost always contextualized. The secret recipe to Coca-Cola is incredibly valuable, but the value would be much less to a 5th grader down the street than the world's premier food scientists.
i share your optimism but i'm not sure yet. If these benchmarks truly measured 'the thing' we'd already be seeing an explosion of innovation and new ideas, and that's not the case.
Still probably (far far far better) than chance stochastic 'parrots'
but we could also have commoditized intelligence soon.
The only thing I can say is hell yeah, Packy!! Thank you for writing something so actionable for we individuals trying to figure out which way to sprint.
I also really appreciate you sharing your process on how this one got written. I wrote “It’s Time to BURN,” which might be considered a (more poetic) companion piece, in December and experienced something similar. Writing that fully possessed me for a couple of weeks until it was done. It took its sweet time in arriving but I had so much fun wrestling with it. And I absolutely did it with ChatGPT and Claude as my companions. (In addition to smart humans.)
Just WOW, blown away... will re-read and reflect, a LOT!
Such a thought-provoking piece and I love how you connected the dots between commoditisation, human potential and meaning.
The insight about love being the economic end game really resonated with me - it feels intuitively true that beneath all our striving and building, what we're really seeking is deeper human connection and experience.
The parallel between meditation's "neti neti" (stripping away what we're not to reveal what we are) and how AI commoditisation is actually helping clarify what's uniquely human is brilliant.
Rather than diminishing us, perhaps AI is helping reveal our true value... I need to think how to weave this in to my thinking about the IKIGAI RISK OF AI.
I guess my biggest worry is how to get more people to want to take the time to read your stuff, and my stuff and to even remove the fear enough for them to want to have a play with AI... it is such a struggle to even motivate people enough to check out FREE online AI upskilling courses which is what I am trying to do in my day job at present!
Really appreciate you taking the time to let these ideas breathe and evolve rather than rushing to publish. The depth and originality shows.
Looking forward to seeing how these themes develop through 2025!
That's a very optimistic view for sure. I'm curious to see what happens when tons of people get discarded thanks to AI. I have no doubts that AI will help us do better but I fear only a few will actually enjoy its benefits. Not sure our societies will survive this. Not sure I care anyway ^^
"...be long optionality into increasing volatility" - indeed. This entire journey feels very similar to The New Earth (https://a.co/d/ew9r0Jp) awakening.
In the last two years, I’ve noticed an emerging trend: I’ve met people who have commoditized two of the most valuable resources—time and money. By their late 30s or early 40s, they’ve retired, having earned enough to stop working permanently or for a long time. This has also freed them from needing to interact with others out of obligation.
Current western lifestyle is built on being busy making money, driven by a sense of unworthiness that creates an endless need to earn and consume. However, it seems that a few people have already "hacked the system." And if history teaches us anything, it’s that if a few can do it, it might signal an upgrade for humanity as a whole.
What are the novel experiences in this case? My favorite question.
Enjoyed the read, thanks for committing to the "weirdness" as you put it of this one.
I like the higher levels of abstraction take. This has been the impact of all technological advancements. While AI has some unique aspects like being a hyper-spreader (compared to say, agriculture of the internal combustion engine), it is fundamentally a technological innovation, which means some of the impacts will look very similar to past technological innovations, like enabling higher levels of abstraction.
This concept also makes me think of what naturally happens within companies today. The higher in the organization you go, the higher level of abstraction the employees work at. There is no value judgement intended in this, just calling out the nature of strategic management vs. tactical execution. The C-suite of an airline have to focus on a largely abstract, ambiguous, strategic world. Their pilots, flight attendants, etc. execute all of the tactical operations of the airline excellently.
Back to your post, AI enables more people to do more at higher levels of abstraction. Even keeping with the pilot example, I assume the cockpit of an aircraft is much simpler and more automated than it used to be, allowing the pilots to operate at higher levels of abstraction.
…the less like it we become the better our odds…adaptation is required at all steps of evolution or devolution…will be neat to see how rebellion shapes…
The issue is how we handle the transition. Maintenance of humanity will require a flow of Einstein level intellects. The only purpose of sub-Einstein level intellects will be to provide genetic material for future generations of Einsteins. I doubt that task will require a population of 8-10 billion. How can we transition to greatly reduced population peacefully and happily in just a generation or two? Put another way: how can we do it without having to resort to Covid 20.
Why do you lie to yourselves. Humans are not evolving fast enough, so you can't view it as "always one more thing we are better at than the machines". The day will come. The only way out of it is merging with AI and become/remain the best species.
Another amazing article! I had my computer science class read this article today and multiple students said the article and discussion we had was the best class they have ever had. I told them my goal is to help them master the fundamentals of each abstraction layer so they can learn how to leverage the outputs of AI at each layer better than 99% of other high schoolers. This should be the goal of every teacher and every school. Working to turn your ideas into a classroom system than any high school teacher can use. You are shaping the future more than you know!
Steven, that made me so happy to hear man!! What a great goal for your students and honored to play a small part in making that happen.
Brilliant ideas, I love the move into a slowness and your pieces resonate quite deeply!
I've thought through the place of humans in an post-AGI society and came to the characteristic that I think will be superordinate: Authenticity. It's possible this is the next 'layers' reigning spirit.
So long as we have our authenticity, and our unique combination of experiences, interests, and ideas, we will remain relevant to one another.
And even if the AI's become so good, so good that they can predict the next thought to populate an authentic persons thought pattern, I think humans will still enjoy the experience of following a friend on their authentic journey and seeing them intertwine their thoughts, experiences, and unique combo of ideas, much like I do with you here :)
If you're curious, I've written about the era of authenticity here: https://www.frontierletter.com/p/the-era-of-authenticity
Authenticity Insurgence here: https://www.frontierletter.com/p/the-authenticity-insurgence
P.S. if you'd prefer i don't place links to my writing here, please let me know. Don't want to disrespect your comment section
So well said. As artificial intelligence eats everything:
1. EQ becomes much more important than IQ.
2. Taste becomes much more important than execution.
3. IRL experiences become much more important than URL (online) ones.
To your point "taste becomes much more important than execution." I think the tech world could learn from the art world here. Art still values exact precision and execution, but not in the same way it did in say, the 1700's? It may even go further back. The taste component elicits emotion, and hundreds of years of paintings, sculptures, etc. have elicited more emotion from humans than precise, mechanical, representations of the world. That kind of art is still valuable, but so is the abstract, wild, weird, etc. Art can be niche, it can require context, but none of that eliminates the value, it just means that some value isn't always immediately, intuitively, recognized by everyone. To be fair, I am not quite sure I can name anything aside from food and shelter that may meet those requirements. Value, and the measure of it, is almost always contextualized. The secret recipe to Coca-Cola is incredibly valuable, but the value would be much less to a 5th grader down the street than the world's premier food scientists.
Thank you for provoking some thinking :)
i share your optimism but i'm not sure yet. If these benchmarks truly measured 'the thing' we'd already be seeing an explosion of innovation and new ideas, and that's not the case.
Still probably (far far far better) than chance stochastic 'parrots'
but we could also have commoditized intelligence soon.
🙏Cheers
The only thing I can say is hell yeah, Packy!! Thank you for writing something so actionable for we individuals trying to figure out which way to sprint.
I also really appreciate you sharing your process on how this one got written. I wrote “It’s Time to BURN,” which might be considered a (more poetic) companion piece, in December and experienced something similar. Writing that fully possessed me for a couple of weeks until it was done. It took its sweet time in arriving but I had so much fun wrestling with it. And I absolutely did it with ChatGPT and Claude as my companions. (In addition to smart humans.)
As the kids say, LFG.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tinyrevolutions/p/tiny-revolutions-115-its-time-to?r=8q64&utm_medium=ios
Just WOW, blown away... will re-read and reflect, a LOT!
Such a thought-provoking piece and I love how you connected the dots between commoditisation, human potential and meaning.
The insight about love being the economic end game really resonated with me - it feels intuitively true that beneath all our striving and building, what we're really seeking is deeper human connection and experience.
The parallel between meditation's "neti neti" (stripping away what we're not to reveal what we are) and how AI commoditisation is actually helping clarify what's uniquely human is brilliant.
Rather than diminishing us, perhaps AI is helping reveal our true value... I need to think how to weave this in to my thinking about the IKIGAI RISK OF AI.
I guess my biggest worry is how to get more people to want to take the time to read your stuff, and my stuff and to even remove the fear enough for them to want to have a play with AI... it is such a struggle to even motivate people enough to check out FREE online AI upskilling courses which is what I am trying to do in my day job at present!
Really appreciate you taking the time to let these ideas breathe and evolve rather than rushing to publish. The depth and originality shows.
Looking forward to seeing how these themes develop through 2025!
TTFN
Sarah xxx
That's a very optimistic view for sure. I'm curious to see what happens when tons of people get discarded thanks to AI. I have no doubts that AI will help us do better but I fear only a few will actually enjoy its benefits. Not sure our societies will survive this. Not sure I care anyway ^^
"...be long optionality into increasing volatility" - indeed. This entire journey feels very similar to The New Earth (https://a.co/d/ew9r0Jp) awakening.
Thanks Packy! This year is definitely going to be different.
Thank you
In the last two years, I’ve noticed an emerging trend: I’ve met people who have commoditized two of the most valuable resources—time and money. By their late 30s or early 40s, they’ve retired, having earned enough to stop working permanently or for a long time. This has also freed them from needing to interact with others out of obligation.
Current western lifestyle is built on being busy making money, driven by a sense of unworthiness that creates an endless need to earn and consume. However, it seems that a few people have already "hacked the system." And if history teaches us anything, it’s that if a few can do it, it might signal an upgrade for humanity as a whole.
What are the novel experiences in this case? My favorite question.
Enjoyed the read, thanks for committing to the "weirdness" as you put it of this one.
I like the higher levels of abstraction take. This has been the impact of all technological advancements. While AI has some unique aspects like being a hyper-spreader (compared to say, agriculture of the internal combustion engine), it is fundamentally a technological innovation, which means some of the impacts will look very similar to past technological innovations, like enabling higher levels of abstraction.
This concept also makes me think of what naturally happens within companies today. The higher in the organization you go, the higher level of abstraction the employees work at. There is no value judgement intended in this, just calling out the nature of strategic management vs. tactical execution. The C-suite of an airline have to focus on a largely abstract, ambiguous, strategic world. Their pilots, flight attendants, etc. execute all of the tactical operations of the airline excellently.
Back to your post, AI enables more people to do more at higher levels of abstraction. Even keeping with the pilot example, I assume the cockpit of an aircraft is much simpler and more automated than it used to be, allowing the pilots to operate at higher levels of abstraction.
…the less like it we become the better our odds…adaptation is required at all steps of evolution or devolution…will be neat to see how rebellion shapes…
The issue is how we handle the transition. Maintenance of humanity will require a flow of Einstein level intellects. The only purpose of sub-Einstein level intellects will be to provide genetic material for future generations of Einsteins. I doubt that task will require a population of 8-10 billion. How can we transition to greatly reduced population peacefully and happily in just a generation or two? Put another way: how can we do it without having to resort to Covid 20.
Why do you lie to yourselves. Humans are not evolving fast enough, so you can't view it as "always one more thing we are better at than the machines". The day will come. The only way out of it is merging with AI and become/remain the best species.