What is the most important question of our age?
We live in times of material abundance. We live in times of depraved scarcity. We have dynastic monarchs expanding the scope of democratic rights for subjects in their kingdoms. We have voters in democracies electing ‘unofficial monarchs’ into power, who abuse their offices to deprive their citizens of human rights.
There is more information available to us at our fingertips than the entire Library of Alexandria, yet most of our time on the internet is spent watching short videos of thousands of people performing the same mundane dance moves, on a loop, endlessly.
Ambitious young Afghan girls, living under the tyranny of the Taliban, are using the internet and Khan Academy to educate themselves and chart their escape from the desolation of radical extremism, to pursue quantum computing research in America. At the same time, even the most expensive traditional schools in America are failing to prepare their students for a world in which most of the jobs they are being trained for will be eaten away by artificial intelligence within the next decade.
Robots are now doing data analysis and computer programming through browser-based chatboxes while thousands of young students in India set fire to trains and vandalized train stations to protest rising levels of unemployment in the most populated country in the world. Some people have managed to procure for themselves a digital currency that is minted by a piece of software created by a phantom and that is now worth more than gold. But even millions of currency notes minted by certain third-world governments won’t be enough to help you buy a cup of coffee at an American Starbucks.
We are on the brink of creating a ‘Golden Age’ utopia fuelled by energy abundance, and accelerated by A.I. ‘gods’. We are also on the brink of creating a dystopia for all those millions of people who will be unable to find jobs because of mass-scale unemployment that will be unleashed by the mass-scale adoption of human-level artificial general intelligence.
There will be new jobs created eventually, but for a brief period, that might last for several years or decades, we will have scores of angry, young, unemployed men, taking to the streets to protest the laments of their empty stomachs, being seduced by extremist ideologies to spread hatred and violence that fills the void of meaning in their economically irrelevant lives.
The most important question for our age that emerges from these conflicting scenarios is - how do we build exponential growth curves of technological innovation while also ensuring that we distribute the gains from our technological progress across all levels of society? How do we prevent the creation of utopian islands of prosperity within a dystopian ocean of despair?
We will arrive at the answer by unleashing the creative potential of our Promethean Spirits.
In the Greek myths of the benevolent titan Prometheus, when mortal humans lived under the shadow of darkness, the ‘Gods’ on Mount Olympus wielded exclusively for themselves, the scorching flame of light. This fire was the fuel for progress, and the source of knowledge and wisdom. The ‘Gods’ were careful not to share this fire with the humans, lest the humans become self-reliant with the help of this fire and thus stop obeying the ‘Gods’.
Today, exponentially-improving technologies like artificial intelligence, and the wealth of knowledge amassed by big data-collecting tech ‘Gods’, represent the fire of Mount Olympus. This fire is the rampant force of advancing technologies, empowering the few who control these technologies, while casting everyone else into their shadows, hoping and praying for benevolent access to these technologies. The Olympian abodes of today are to be found in the gleaming offices of those companies and governments that aim to centralize control over these ‘God-like’ technologies for themselves.
Prometheus faced a similar predicament - as he lived amongst the ‘Gods’ on Mount Olympus, he had access to the divine fire of knowledge and technology, yet he was troubled by the fact that this fire was hoarded by the ‘Gods’. Prometheus rebelled against this barricading of the fire to spread its enlightening effects to mankind. He risked the divine fury of the ‘Gods’ to steal the fire for humanity. This myth symbolizes the recurring conflict between centralized control over advanced technologies versus democratic access to them.
How might Prometheus' myth help us tackle our contemporary concerns about distributing the returns from technological progress to all classes of our society? Prometheus' sacrifice provides a blueprint for today’s bravehearts who dare to rebel against the exploitative hoarding of knowledge and technology by a handful of companies and governments.
The Greek myths go forth to tell us how Prometheus, embodying humanity's rebellious spirit, defied the oppressive Olympian ‘Gods’ and stole their sacred fire, the light of civilization. Prometheus then gifted this fire to us, to mankind, so that we could lift ourselves from ignorance into enlightenment. Our potential unlocked, no longer servants to these cruel ‘Gods’.
Prometheus succeeded in his daring heist. His cunning beat these ‘Gods’, and liberated humanity. But he incurred Zeus' fury. The King of these ‘Gods’ ruthlessly punished Prometheus. Condemned him to eternal torment. Chained him to a rock as an eagle tore out his liver, every day, on repeat, in a cycle of perennial torture where his liver was cursed to grow back each day so that he could be tortured again the next day. While Prometheus endured this endless nightmare, his gift of fire sparked an irrepressible yearning in humankind - to rebel against oppression and ignorance, to seek wisdom, creativity, and liberation. Prometheus helped mankind come out from under the shadows of darkness, band together to form a civilization, and embark on our great adventure as a species to seek truth, beauty, excellence, and mastery over our failings and weaknesses.
This is why our age needs its Prometheus. The hero who dares to venture into our silicon-gilded Mount Olympus to steal that sacred fire of knowledge and technology and deliver it to those in the shadows. The Prometheus of myth was punished, condemned for his audacious attempt to rob the ‘Gods’ of their source of power, and bound in shackles, merely for pursuing the noble quest of illuminating humanity. This is why stealing fire from the silicon ‘Gods’ of our day is going to be a quest fraught with fatal risks. Those who attempt it will be met with vehement opposition in the form of condemnation or regulation that favors the incumbents on the mountaintop.
But wherever there is darkness, you will find those who seek the light. Adventurers, explorers, rebels, founders, pioneers, brave souls who won't be daunted by the narratives of myths. Who will etch their myths into the gilded walls of our post-scarcity future. These are the Promethean Spirits of our age. Their quest is not to merely acquire this exponential knowledge and technology, but to distribute them to one and all. To make them accessible, usable, and transformative for those who are set to be mired in economic and social desolation. To decentralize our organizations, democratize access to expertise through open source artificial intelligence, reduce the costs of biotech solutions, make cutting edge information and education available to anyone with an internet connection, eradicate fatal diseases that disproportionately affect the underprivileged, help us spread the light of human consciousness to other planets, and much more.
These Promethean Spirits will be forced to confront internal battles – the demons of self-doubt, the ghosts of failures past. Their local environment will echo with sounds of derision and skepticism. The masses they are striving to help, the ones who unleash the beast of conventional public opinion, will brand them as renegades and heretics, because these masses won’t understand that the Promethean Spirits are working to bring out the masses themselves from under the shadows.
No one, no matter how courageous or energetic, can traverse this journey alone. These Promethean Spirits must seek each other out. They must devise tools and strategies not only to harness the Olympian fire but also to enhance its power, to make it a beacon for others seeking to extend the reach of this fire, and to shield it from those who wish to hoard it for themselves. This will not be a stealth mission. It will be an open rebellion – to ensure that the fire reaches far and wide.
As a collective force, these Promethean Spirits shall ensure that the future isn't an archipelago of isolated islands of utopian prosperity amidst a vast sea of dystopian despair. They will chart a course toward a world where the fire of technology, knowledge, and progress is not a privilege, but a right. A world where the wonders of Mount Olympus are not cornered resources. A world in which the returns from technological progress are accessible to one and all.
Why am I launching this Substack publication?
What do I hope to contribute to this grand adventure of our age?
This Substack is my humble chariot. A lab to work on ideas for unshackling the binds of my own Promethean Spirit. A beacon for pioneering readers, creators, thinkers, operators, and founders, urging them to unearth the latent Promethean Spirits within themselves, to awaken the dormant flames of curiosity and ingenuity.
But why? Why go through all this? What makes this quest important?
Because the Olympian ‘Gods’ of our age – the big tech companies, and the sprawling, overreaching big governments – may have neither the incentives nor the will, to share with the masses their fire of technological magic and profound wisdom. Their fragile structures, and conflicting interests, may render them unable or disinclined to spread the fire democratically.
Thus, it falls upon us, to summon our own inner Promethean Spirits. To find our tribe, form squads, alliances, and brotherhoods. We must embark on these daunting quests together. That is the only way.
We must shape our culture to survive and thrive in a world in which we will be living side-by-side with superintelligent robots. Instead of calling for protest marches that seek the destruction of all the progress our species has achieved over the past millennia, we must train the well-intentioned amongst us to evolve into builders who can harness the power of exponential technologies to address the most critical problems faced by our communities.
This cultural metamorphosis shall be birthed in our minds through the influence of the media that we create and consume. Media shapes our cultures. Our cultures mold our minds. Our minds forge the technologies that mediate our experience of our world and determine the destiny of our species.
It is through the crafting and etching of novel narratives and stories that we can incite a revolution of adventure and enlightenment. That is what I aspire to contribute to our collective culture by publishing essays and other compositions through this Substack publication and beyond.
I hope to make this Substack publication a beacon for others whose thoughts align with my mission, those who are intrigued by this quest to cherish and distribute the fire of progress, and those who are determined to raise the ceiling of our collective ambitions by banding together.
What are the questions that I shall be exploring through this Substack publication?
I’ve launched this Substack publication to explore ideas for tackling the central question we face regarding balancing technological innovation with the democratic distribution of its returns. All of my compositions here will be focused on exploring solutions to this dilemma through the lenses of biographies of Promethean Spirits from our past, an understanding of the historical chain of events and narratives that have brought us to where we are today, and learning about the most exciting developments from the industries where cutting edge technological innovation is disrupting the way we live, love, and work.
To chart a course across these stormy waters, I plan to learn about a variety of disciplines, industries, and markets, to make sure that we rely on a truthful examination of various scenarios and possibilities, including both the risks and the opportunities that each of them present. I shall embark on these explorations through my attempts to answer thought-provoking questions, which I shall express in the form of future essays dispatched through this Substack publication. Some of the questions that I am currently working on are:
What would be possible if we could harness the engaging allure of science fiction and cyberpunk literature, animes, and films to reach new audiences of readers who are receptive to joining this quest?
Have modern novels evolved into rap albums? What would happen if we used the medium of rap albums to reach the tuned-in masses of hip-hop listeners, teach them about these rapid technological changes, and encourage them to pursue their own thrilling quests to secure the fire?
Are all forms of media - like text, audio, and video converging into the medium of video games? How do we transform video games into the most effective way of shaping our cultural landscape, through their unique blend of interactive worlds, stunning visual art, pulsating music, and user-driven narratives?
How should we architect efficient networks that connect Promethean Spirits worldwide, and help them transcend spatial and temporal confines to embark on these arduous quests?
Once connected, what practices should these Promethean Spirits adopt to determine which quests to embark on, by matching the requirements of the quests to their individual aspirations and collective circumstances?
What can we achieve if we exploit artificial intelligence, blockchain networks, extended reality tools like the metaverse, and other technologies to form and build these global collaborations?
As we turn our gazes to the stars, what methods should we deploy to identify and train those pioneering spirits who are willing to leave behind their lives on our planet to establish humanity's footprints on Mars and other planets, thus extending the light of human consciousness beyond Earth?
What is a pragmatic approach to framing a shared ethical compass for our future, that enables us to lay the groundwork for effective alignment of artificial general intelligence and for devising antifragile governance structures that ensure the continued progress of our civilization?
While our society goes through seismic shifts triggered by artificial intelligence-driven upheavals – such as unemployment, new religions that worship powerful artificial intelligence tools, or the emergence of augmented ‘superhumans’ – how do we maintain our individual sanity and collective equilibrium?
What does it look like to adopt a foundational, first principles approach to building businesses, drafting contracts, crafting strategies, and devising corporate governance models that empower our Promethean Spirits to continue their pursuits without regulatory, legal, or financial impediments?
What are the economic models and financial scaffolds that we need to implement and build within our national and international economic environments to incentivize the adventures of our Promethean Spirits?
How should we redesign our legal systems and frameworks, to ensure that they support the ambitions of our talented founders and trailblazers, and that they evolve to meet the needs of a rapidly transforming world, using exponential technologies to rejuvenate millennia-old judicial practices?
I invite you to join this adventure of ideas. We shall seek answers to these questions. And to ones not yet formed. I shall strive to illuminate the darkness. To unleash the Promethean Spirit within you. Within us all.
Together we can summon our irrepressible courage. Harness exponential technologies as tools for human flourishing. Write the myths of our age. Etch tales of fearless souls who lit humanity's way. Of fire shared, not hoarded.
I beckon all kindred spirits hungering for illumination. Seeking wisdom, creativity, liberation.
Heed the summons.
This publication is a beacon guiding us ahead. Onwards, to distribute the fire.