Technology and the industrial acceleration was dependent on a abundant food supply, which allowed people to work in factories rather than on subsistence farms. Not toiling all day in the fields leaves time to do “other” things. AI can tell people with diabetes or heart disease not to eat that Big Mac. But unless they have a bio-metric punishment device, people will still indulge. Cigarettes have a warning label, but the human doesn’t care. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 10? years.
Have you ever wondered what happens when the curve gets vertical? I have the suspicion there might be a drastic change ahead. In nature, any system that grows exponentialy finally hits a wall:
Great little article thanks for linking. I’m a fan of the spiral of history in that history does not repeat itself but does rhyme. And when we hit a “wall” we experience creative destruction. Generally our lives and nature grow in complexity and become more anti-fragile with each new destruction
That is something I can relate to! 😊 I would even argument that a certain level of complexity will lead to a reduction of complexity under a new paradigm. That is how epochs form...
As noted, the history of human progress looks like a hockey stick....a long period of slow, fitfully growth, followed by a sudden explosion upward. This explosion represents a sudden surge in accumulated knowledge.
Around 1800, we figured out how to harness the compressed energy stored in fossil fuels to enhance our counterentropic forms...what we call technology.
The rest is history. AI has the potential to unlock a new revolution, not only in energy, but to accelerate the accumulation of knowledge to a pace that is unfathomable by US today.
Technology and the industrial acceleration was dependent on a abundant food supply, which allowed people to work in factories rather than on subsistence farms. Not toiling all day in the fields leaves time to do “other” things. AI can tell people with diabetes or heart disease not to eat that Big Mac. But unless they have a bio-metric punishment device, people will still indulge. Cigarettes have a warning label, but the human doesn’t care. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 10? years.
Excellent points. For now we will have to rely on Oh, Oh, Oh, Ozempic while we sort out why European food is so much healthier than American food
Have you ever wondered what happens when the curve gets vertical? I have the suspicion there might be a drastic change ahead. In nature, any system that grows exponentialy finally hits a wall:
https://theafh.substack.com/p/the-last-day-on-the-lake?r=42gt5
Great little article thanks for linking. I’m a fan of the spiral of history in that history does not repeat itself but does rhyme. And when we hit a “wall” we experience creative destruction. Generally our lives and nature grow in complexity and become more anti-fragile with each new destruction
That is something I can relate to! 😊 I would even argument that a certain level of complexity will lead to a reduction of complexity under a new paradigm. That is how epochs form...
Nice little round up... now to see how much of it pans out!
That part is up to us 💪🏼🚀
Wonderful peice Matthew.
As noted, the history of human progress looks like a hockey stick....a long period of slow, fitfully growth, followed by a sudden explosion upward. This explosion represents a sudden surge in accumulated knowledge.
Around 1800, we figured out how to harness the compressed energy stored in fossil fuels to enhance our counterentropic forms...what we call technology.
The rest is history. AI has the potential to unlock a new revolution, not only in energy, but to accelerate the accumulation of knowledge to a pace that is unfathomable by US today.
If we get this right, the future is so bright!