2. Accelerating Progress

2.5 Insights

We can't stop technological progress. The only way would be to destroy civilization. “I'm not sure what weapons will be used to fight World War III, but in World War IV they will fight with sticks and stones.” (Albert Einstein)

But if we don't destroy civilization, then there are only two possibilities. Either we continue to live in the future as we are, as unchanged human beings. Helpless, because we no longer understand the world in its complexity. Ruled by corporations and AIs, with the sword of Damocles of an AI apocalypse always hovering over us. Or we adapt, to keep pace, in our way of thinking, in symbiosis with AIs. And in doing so, shape our own future as children of humanity, rather than be swept away by it.

This concludes our look into the future. Whatever may come after that, we can no longer imagine it. And we don’t need to, either. We can just take away that the humanity of the future will have far more possibilities at its disposal than we do, just as we have far more possibilities at our disposal than the people of antiquity.
And maybe the next time you see the heroes and villains fighting each other with lightsabers in a Star Wars movie, you'll smile at how unrealistic such a future is.

For the ideas of new systems I want to design in this book, it means: They have to be able to cope with a world that is changing ever faster. If they are rigid, they will break.
Therefore, these systems must be dynamic in and of themselves. One day, there will not be enough time anymore to carefully change just one parameter, observe the changes, and only make the next change years later. Instead, the systems must be able to adapt to changes in their environment on their own.

And it's not just the systems that have to cope with the changes. The people as well. Therefore, I will take care to consider how my concepts can help people avoid falling behind in a rapidly changing world, and instead lead a happy and fulfilling life.