My compass in life has largely oscillated between two central themes: freedom and ideals. What would happen if you equipped a sophisticated species with tools of increasing precision?
Thousands of years ago, it was difficult to tell what humans were capable of. An external observer watching the early iteration of what would become the human species would not have had much to imagine with regards to whatever potential this feeble, four-limbed super organism could morph into.
I suspect with a little extra observation, it should not have been too difficult to figure out that humans have always been as advanced as their tools. Today, through archaeology, we are able to assume what era in time certain groups of early humans existed almost entirely through the artifacts that were their tools.
Imagine the joy when a bunch of hunter-gatherers discovered they could sharpen sticks with sharp stones to make spears for hunting animals from a distance! Imagine the new range of ideas this unlocked. Imagine how important something —now trivial in hindsight— was, in unlocking the next dimension of exponential potential. Imagine the external observer watching these puny humans go from prey to predator almost overnight. Flipping their state of living, from the bottom of the food chain, to the top, simply by applying tools to their lives. Tools that would considerably alter the trajectory of their destiny as a species for ever.
Conversely, imagine our external observer coming back a few weeks after those ambitious humans discovered tools for hunting, and he meets them at war with each other: faction against faction, using (surprise, surprise) the exact same tools that flipped their destiny as a species—from underlings to apex predators. Now those same tools gave expression to perverse ideas as well. For the first time, they had were at war. The same tool that unlocked immense potential for a positive trajectory now also introduced the potential to corrupt their trajectory and pervert their choices given this new found power.
Over time, as the tools of our species grew, our capacity and potential also grew exponentially. It was the ultimate flywheel. It is hard to say whether we advanced because we made powerful tools, or we made powerful tools because we advanced. Whatever the case, we formed a synergy with our tools —we became our tools, and our tools became us.
This laid the basis for every other incremental progress we have attained as a species. We have always excelled at building tools that not only outlive us, but set the stage for even better tools that improve our world.
The world has recently unlocked a new paradigm of tools. Not just any type of tool, but tools that are able to almost independently make further tools for getting more done, in less time. For now, we have chosen to call it “Artificial Intelligence”. But in all, it is a tool. A particularly useful one at that.
While this particular tool stands out from past tools on the basis of operation, the core principles of the tools mankind has developed still holds true for this one: we will find creative applications for this tool. It will enable new ways to do things differently and better; but most importantly, it will enable things that have never existed, to exist.
We have, once again, been tasked with the destiny of our future as a species: evolve or die. Will we take responsibility and do better, or bury our heads in the sand?
AI has offered a new path to redemption. Overall, history has been kind to us: again and again, we have been offered lessons on the value of rallying around powerful ideas and saving our world.
A long time ago, I saddled my self with the useful burden of building the world I want. The world I want is a simple one: a free world —free as in freedom, without a price on the human soul and the potentials it is allowed to unlock; and powerful ideals that remind us that we can be more, that this can not be all there is to us.
Crypto was my first true shot at reimagining a free world, economically-aligned with the power of freedom and global access at a scale that was only previously a dream. But why stop there? AI has presented an equally truly powerful portal for the actualization of freedom for our world. The freedom to reimagine without excuses and the privilege to hold lofty ideals that force us to build meaningful, valuable tools that strengthen the fabric of our souls.
I am convinced that there will be no shortage of tools that offer the potential to build a better world. What matters even more is what we do with those tools. Will we reimagine new paths to greatness, or will we succumb to the darkness of perverse incentives?
