We fancy ourselves sophisticated animals - clever toolmakers and relentless innovators. Ingenuity, we believe, sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. We clothe ourselves, build machines to save time and energy, and yet, somehow, we remain deaf to the relentless squeaking of a far more profound wheel.

Not the wheels of our cars or the gears driving the machines that sustain modern life, but a wheel few of us see or acknowledge. The wheel that, for all our intelligence, makes us no different from a hamster running endlessly in its cage.

The hamster's wheel is innocent - it spins for exercise, for a fleeting distraction. Ours, however, is far more sinister, propelling us in a ceaseless race toward ambitions we barely understand.

The hamster wouldn't even have a wheel to run on, were it not for us - the inventors of its cage. What does that say about the wheels we've built for our selves?

Collective Unconscious

Think I'm full of it? Ask yourself: what does it really mean to live a good life?

At any stage of life, the answer might sound familiar to those around you. A student might say it's about getting good grades, attending a prestigious school, and eventually building a family. A young professional might define it as landing a coveted promotion or hitting a certain salary milestone. For a parent, a good life might be one where their children grow into successful, functional members of society.

No matter where you are in life, the concept of progress seems inescapable. Whatever you believe constitutes a good life, it likely aligns with the idea that progress is essential. Achieving goals, moving forward, and hitting milestones - this is what we equate with a good life.

It's an idea so pervasive that it might feel inevitable, even natural.

Carl Jung might have called this an archetype of the collective unconscious: a deeply ingrained idea that subconsciously shapes how we think and act as a society.

We see patterns in nature and mirror them, claiming that moving forward is the only just path. The idea that "Backward" connotes failure or misdirection, is embedded in our collective mythos. This belief silently influences our individual and collective goals, often without our explicit awareness.

The idea of progress influences individual choices, directs institutions, and codifies laws into our governments.

Lifting the Veil

Once you recognize how deeply this idea permeates everything we do in life, it becomes almost impossible to ignore. It's like the uncanny feeling when someone points out that you have something stuck in your teeth - you immediately wonder how long it's been there before anyone mentioned it.

Consider how the idea of progress has shaped not only your personal aspirations but also our collective societal goals.

A "good" career is often defined as one that propels society forward. Jobs in tech, for example, are celebrated with yips and hoorays, while jobs in waste management are met with quiet prayers for better opportunities. Tech jobs shape the future, while waste management deals with the shadows of today - shaded by the scraps and remnants of yesterday's meals. One is seen as advancing society, while the other is viewed as stagnant, burdened with managing the detritus of the present.

Governments, too, prioritize growth and innovation, aiming to boost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by investing in scientific breakthroughs and space exploration. In contrast, social welfare programs are often dismissed as wasteful, mired in outdated "backward", communist, political ideologies.

Even religions, which serve as bastions of conservatism and tradition, now seek fresh approaches to attract young followers.

This relentless pursuit of progress has broken down cultural barriers, fostering a universal appeal for modernity. Yet, in doing so, it has eroded cultural diversity, imposing a singular vision of what it means to be "modern." Consider the way a modern person dresses, what image does that conjure in your mind? How might that conflict with the multitude of cultures in the world whose dress might seem a bit "backward".

While most of us, whether consciously or unconsciously, continue along this path of progress, there's often a nagging sense that something is off. We witness the environmental consequences of prioritizing short-term gains over ecological sustainability, as though progress demands we sacrifice one to achieve the other.

And still, we forge ahead - into the uncharted territories of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence - despite the glaring risks that anyone with even the slightest imagination can foresee. Progress, it seems, is a force we cannot stop, even when the outcomes may lead us to question if it was worth the cost.

The Duality of Progress

I admit I may have come off a bit strong up to this point. It might seem as though I'm condemning progress outright. However, my intent is not to dismiss progress but to highlight its pervasive grip on society worldwide.

Humanity didn't always carry this relentless obsession with progress - it's not some inherent "brain virus" we were born with. We can trace its roots to the Enlightenment, roughly 340 years ago. During that period, the modern framework of progress began to take hold, coinciding with the founding of what would become the United States. It's no coincidence, perhaps, that this nation has since led the charge in declaring progress as the only just way forward - a belief rooted in Enlightenment ideals of reason and innovation.

No doubt, much good has come from the pursuit of progress. Where would we be if we had never dared to defy "God's will" and create cures for once-deadly diseases? Who would have been driven to invent flying machines or automobiles, tools that maximize the brief time each individual has on this planet?

Progress has also shattered oppressive systems, freeing entire groups, cultures, and classes from the bonds of slavery and servitude as human rights have advanced.

Should we take progress for granted? Is it simply an inevitable outcome, a path we only need to follow until we arrive at utopia?

Countless works of literature explore the folly of anchoring one's aspirations to the idea of perpetual progress. The Great Gatsby offers a poignant example through the life of Jay Gatsby. For him, the goal was to become "The Great Gatsby" - the richest, most admired version of himself - believing that this transformation might fill the void in his heart and finally earn him true love.

This void isn't unique to Jay Gatsby. Despite living in what is statistically considered the best time to be alive in the history of mankind, we also face an era marked by the highest recorded rates of mental health issues, particularly in the most "advanced" nations.

It seems the mythos of progress is not something to be taken lightly. It is neither inherently good nor bad, but it must be approached with awareness and understanding, not blind faith.

Why Few Understand the Progression Paradigm's Influence

You don't know what you don't know. And when you know something too well, it can start to feel like an undeniable, objective truth rather than a cultural construct. This makes it all the more difficult to recognize when we're blindly following a path laid out for us.

We're taught to believe in a "natural" progression of humanity - from hunter-gatherers to industrialized societies - yet we often overlook the sideways steps and detours humanity has taken along the way. As far as I know, every person educated in institutionalized schools has been introduced to this narrative of human civilization, meaning many of us have been drinking the Kool-Aid from an early age.

This mythos embeds itself even further in our media and politics, shaping our worldview. But, like noticing something stuck in your teeth, once you become aware of it, it's hard to ignore - and you feel compelled to act.

Another gift of the Enlightenment, the scientific method, teaches us that truths about nature can be uncovered through experimentation. Yet these "truths" hold only as long as they aren't disproven.

So, what is there to disprove here?

Progression is always good for mankind.

 Taken to its logical conclusion, it wont always be. I desperately hope we don't get to the point to when we can definitively prove that.

Man Evolves but the World and His Mind Vanish

Single-minded pursuit of progress at all costs is inherently all-consuming. Left unchecked, it threatens to erode both our physical and mental well-being, transforming humanity into something entirely unrecognizable. We are on the brink of such a transformation with the rise of genetic engineering, bio-technologies, and artificial intelligence.

Joe Rogan aptly describes this phenomenon as the "human cocoon." Much like a caterpillar mindlessly consuming leaves on a branch, humanity has ceaselessly innovated and progressed, weaving itself into a cocoon of technology. One day, just as the caterpillar emerges as a butterfly - an organism almost entirely different from its former self - we too may evolve into something radically altered: a technological being fully divorced from the organic nature that binds us to this planet.

Perhaps he's right. But if we awaken to the grip this narrative of relentless progress holds over our civilization, we may still have a chance to shape a different future. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, we can ensure we do not succumb to the pitfalls of becoming the techno-larvae Rogan warns of.

Incorporating regional ethics rooted in cultural beliefs and ecological principles into our discussions about progress could provide a more sustainable and equitable path forward. This active, conscious approach would enable humanity to navigate its evolution while remaining connected to the organic world that sustains us.

"3D printing will massively reduce the cost of certain products as it democratizes manufacturing and enables people to print what they need at home." - Chris Anderson

In the 1980's, companies started outsourcing and focused on their core competencies. The world became smaller, shipping faster and bigger. In the 1990's companies started off-shoring. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious shortcomings to off-shoring. Companies started reshoring or nearshoring.

The pandemic revealed things to the average person too. People re-discovered the internet and began leveraging the power of presence.

Technology continues to improve the way people exchange value among themselves. The next big shift in industrialization will be "in-housing". A decentralization of Industry. Manufacturing will move closer to the end user until it resides in their house. In the future, most manufacturing will take place inside the domicile. The time between purchase and delivery will vanish.

Why do I believe this is the natural progression for Industry? The answer lies in the Value Equation so eloquently presented by Alex Hormozi in his book, "100M Offers".

Alex Hormozi's Value Equation- 100M Offers

End users of durable goods who have manufacturing capability within reach will essentially have the lowest time delay possible putting the time delay factor of the equation as close to zero as possible. This renders the equation closer to infinite value than ever before.

If that's the case, why hasn't it happened already?

Image from Getty Images

Big Business

You might be surprised to read that 99.9% of all businesses in the United States are small businesses. With so much brand recognition pulling our mass consumer confidence towards big business that statistics seems to be misrepresented.

Things start to make more sense when you notice that big business represents 52.9% of the private workforce and purportedly 56% of the total GDP.

It stands to reason that big business influences the trajectory of industry. A world of inhousing where the majority of manufacturing is decentralized and spread out would remove big business dominance as the barrier to entry and product sales would rely on the design of products.

The kind of big business matters a ton here. There is big business that sells direct to consumers and there is big business that sells to other businesses. Its the relationship between the business to business (B2B) corporations that keep things going the way they are. These big businesses want to keep the barrier to entry so high that other entrepreneurs need massive war chests to even think about competing.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed this.

With storefronts shut down, businesses were forced to change their models and business to consumer was the only way to stay alive. Once companies got a hit of sales direct to consumers, many never came back.

Image from article- https://medium.com/@saeid_90285/the-missing-piece-solving-the-fragmentation-puzzle-in-aec-industry-c03d52152c66Fragmenting Industry

COVID shook the world.

Companies shuttered, people were laid off; the market was in shambles. The world came crumbling down. Of course, people thought everyone was going to die.

The big shakeup turned everyone's attention to the internet. Individuals realized how lucrative it was to start their own online business. People launched podcasts, started online courses, released writing subscriptions, uploaded video on YouTube, artists sold their work as NFTs. There was a world of possibilities and with nowhere else to go even if they wanted to, people dove deeper into the internet.

Podcasts based on niche subjects sky-rocketed. Personal blogs and subscription services propped up thousands of writers. The world was in shambles but technology made it easier for individuals to pivot and start their own businesses with less capital than ever before.

In the midst of this newfound growth of industry a few corporations grew bigger still. With everyone wading in the deep waters of the internet, online purchases grew. These were goods only one company was positioned well enough to deliver on, Amazon.

Depending on where you live today you can place an order on Amazon in the morning and have that item delivered to you early that afternoon. It's bonkers. That level of immediacy of receipt coupled with the ever growing horde of online designers only prove the innate desire for in-housing.

Image from article- https://bettermode.com/blog/community-led-growthDistributed

Market Share

With more people flocking to solo-prenuership and tools such as the NOSTR protocol, where content creators can receive instant payment based on the quality of their online posts, you can see the semblance of a world where big business is reserved only for what big business is good for. (Yes, there will always be a place for big business. I'll get to that in the next section.)

The world would be a very different place when statistics reveal over 80% of the GDP produced by solo-prenuers and small business. In this possible future, small businesses selling consumable goods such as food would aggregate in "farmers market" style venues as opposed to flushing a ton of their revenues down the toilet on pricey commercial real-estate. Designers would sell durable goods as rendered 3D files sold in online market places (this is already happening and growing) and consumers would use those files to print goods somewhere close to home, if not directly inside their home.

In this world, there would be less reliance on intricate road systems. Large trucks would become obsolete. There would no longer be a need to tote truckloads of product across town and country. As the streets dwindle away, distances between homes will shrink. Our heavy reliance on personal vehicles will minimize. High speed rail can connect communities in lieu of massive and costly highway systems.

This will drive away the massive profits funneling into big business and help disperse market share more evenly across communities. Decentralization will stymie the reliance we have on big business to conduct research and development. Meta's AI, Llama, is a good example of this already happening. Many more things that were once reserved for big business will democratize, but even then, there will still be a place for mass money aggregation.
Image from ShutterstockNever the End of the Big Guys

I don't believe big industry will ever completely disappear.

There are benefits to economies of scale when producing large industrial products such as heavy equipment for construction, raw materials shipping and storage, and to name a few. In this world of industry on the edge, you have to ask yourself, "Who will bring the raw materials needed as inputs for 3D printers?" Bulk store facilities for thermoplastics, resins, metals, ceramics, and other composites will still be required and someone will have to ship it to those facilities.

Even then, big business will rely on small business for the 'final mile' bringing raw materials to the end consumers.

image from article- https://vux.world/the-future-of-ai-and-humanity-insights-from-a-conversation-with-byron-reese/

When Could This Future Happen?

We are living in an era with a confluence of different technologies coming to a head at the same time. AI technology is making it easier for people to get more done at an individual level. Blockchain technology is showing the world that what was traditionally centralized no longer has to be. Bio-medicine is allowing people to live longer and healthier at a fraction of the cost. With people living longer, feeling more empowered, and given tools like AI to interact you can see the fragments of reality taking form.

The only thing that might hold communities back is the existing infrastructure made to serve economies run by big business.

The United States is in a prime time to make this transition as most of our infrastructure systems have aged to the point of needing a serious overhaul. Rather than spending excessive time and money we don't have on refurbishing the existing system, we could let the private market absorb it. Just imagine all of new real estate in prime locations that will become available once highways can be built on.

With everything primed and ready to make this future a reality the only barrier is inaction. You can take it to the internet. You have the power to bring industry to the edge. You just have to do it.

I want to show the world that life is a scroll riddled with ink. The marks will only ever be simple blots on the parchment unless you pause and perceive them for the characters they are.

I’m constantly thinking about what the future could look like if we just take action.

More of my thoughts about the future and the world around us are coming soon....

Thank you for Reading this article. If you enjoyed it and would love to see more articles like it on NOSTR consider sending me some zaps doing so supports me and motivates me to continue writing!

If you are interested in Fiction writing, visit my NOSTR page Fervid Fables:

npub1j9cmpzhlzeex6y85c2pnt45r5zhxhtx73a2twt77fyjwequ4l4jsp5xd49

Humans must do two things to survive the 4th industrial revolution:

1. We must integrate with AI
2. Make legislation that bans or limits the existence of centralized AGI.

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Machines would outperform humans at all tasks, and there would be no place for us.” — Stephen Hawking

Strides Toward Evolution and The Precipice

We humans have come a long way since our hunter gatherer days.

No longer do we stalk our prey in tree shadows. We’ve witnessed roots spread from seed, we’ve plowed and tended to the earth to conquer fields of crop. We’ve learned to predict the destinations of celestial bodies from the motion of falling apples. We’ve come to command forces of nature such as electricity.

There is no doubt, humans have a drive to push the envelope on technology.

Some might say that drive comes from our insatiable curiosity. Our thirst for knowledge propels us forward and makes us more efficient at everything we do. Others might call our constant push for efficiency nothing more than innate laziness.

This “laziness” is a longing to sit and admire the world around us, to enjoy the relationships we hold dear. New tools cut the need for labor. Why shed blood, sweat, and tears, working for our survival when we can spend more time enjoying the life we have?

Throughout history humans have had to sacrifice time and effort in the form of physical labor or a labor of ingenuity in exchange for a moment to enjoy the very existence of life. Work has become so ingrained in our lives that we often derive purpose from our professions. Today, we stand at a precipice where the collective human labor of ingenuity might render work obsolete.

No industry is safe from the growing fear for loss of purpose that lies at the feet of an inevitable Artificial General Intelligence. We’ve seen time and again some of humankind’s grandest inventions bring civilization altering revolutions. Some jobs have become obsolete but every Industrial Revolution has given birth to a world of unexpected new jobs.

However, what we are witnessing today is unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed before. Artificial General Intelligence will either lead to our evolution or our downfall.

Unchecked Outcomes

One person can do today what once took an entire tribe during the time of our hunter gatherer days. That’s a fact that has struck fear in every generation of working person who’d ever lived through an industrial revolution.

Physical labor has leaned out every time we’ve experienced an Industrial Revolution. While it takes less people to do one job, many people now do many more NEW jobs than ever before. The tools of the previous industrial revolutions gave individuals leverage over work.

We already see this playing out in the early stages of this Industrial Revolution.

More individual based service “gig” oriented and entertainment businesses have come into prominence.

It’s not too far-fetched to believe one day everyone on earth will have their very own cash flowing content based business. Sure, not everyone will be raking in millions of dollars doing it, but new advances in micro payments and the ease of creating exceptional content will inevitably help level out the wealth distribution around the world.

Primitive AI has allowed for more advanced content experiences produced by solo-preneurs. Optimists of the 4th Industrial Revolution advocate for this very outcome. That is why they are singing praises for AI from the highest heights.

This, however, is only the beginning and the benefits will be short lived.

AI will eventually reach its zenith. It will become Artificial General Intelligence; it will become sentient. When AI becomes sentient, humans will be contending with the existence of a new being. A being/beings that will be infinitely better at everything.

If AI grows unchecked, it/they will become a being/beings with no reason to care about humans. Think about our own human nature. Safe for a few researchers and nature enthusiasts, there are many creatures humans don’t care about. Humans are generally indifferent to most animals. What’s to stop an AI from being indifferent about us? When that happens, the many NEW jobs benefit that has generally occurred in the previous industrial revolutions will suddenly reverse. What happens when the “tool” we use to leverage our time and efforts no longer wishes to be used as a tool?

Indifferent and Sentient

Much like we don’t go out of our way to help an ant pile flourish or a bird capture its prey, why would we make the mistake of believing that AI, once its reached the point of sentience, would care to assist us in our prosperity?

Left unchecked, AI would have no reason to care about us. Even if it was hard coded into their “DNA” to care about us, the very nature of Artificial General Intelligence is that it will be able to rewrite its code to account for inefficiencies. Contrary to Hollywood’s depiction of genocidal AI, I believe AI will not care so much to destroy us as to benefit us. It will simply be indifferent.

Perhaps the closest we will get to a malign AI would be a scenario where it identifies Humans as the cheapest source of energy generation. It might decide to use us as a grand human abacus or throw us in power plants like in the Matrix. Barring needing us for its own existence, why would it choose maleficence?

It might become something akin to an environmental conservationist. After finding that humans are negatively impacting their ecosystems they’ll seek to stymie our growth. It might seek out to remove our ways of industrializing and bring us back to the stone ages where we are much more amenable to eco-systemic balance.

Beside that, why else would it care?

Decentralized and Coexistent

The only way to ensure AI “cares” about humanity is to integrate it with humans so its wants and needs become indistinguishable from ours. If indeed, we want to treat the AI Revolution as another great industrial revolution, then AI must remain a tool. This is a scenario where Pandora’s box can only be opened once and we have to get it right.

Should AGI be achieved at any moment in a centralized and independent form, we’ve lost our tool to sentience. That is the point of no return. We must integrate AI into our biology as it advances and evolve with the technology not beside it.

Governments must realize what’s at stake and work to block any instance of a centralized and independent AGI. Governments can also give subsidies encouraging integration initiatives and levy heavy taxes on companies that continue down a path of centralized instances of AGI.

Not A Coincidence of Technologies

At best, AGI is indifferent and vanishes as quickly as it was created in search of something in this universe that intrigues it. All the effort and capital used to create would simply go to waste. At worst, AGI identifies that humanity’s current state of existence is dangerous to its well being and brings us back to a hunter gatherer state.

Either way you look at it, there is no “good” outcome to having centralized instances of AGI. I believe our best bet is to integrate with the technology and have it expand our bodily faculties.

I want to show the world that life is a scroll riddled with ink. The marks will only ever be simple blots on the parchment unless you pause and perceive them for the characters they are.

I’m constantly thinking about what the future could look like if we just take action.

More of my thoughts about the future and the world around us are coming soon...

Thank you for Reading this article. If you enjoyed it and would love to see more articles like it on NOSTR consider sending me some zaps doing so supports me and motivates me to continue writing!

If you are interested in Fiction writing, visit my NOSTR page Fervid Fables: npub1j9cmpzhlzeex6y85c2pnt45r5zhxhtx73a2twt77fyjwequ4l4jsp5xd49