On the Pace of Ruin
What if institutions are structurally incapable of governing AI?
An examination of the structural mismatch between institutional timescales and the pace of AI development.
Eight essays. Eight angles on a future arriving whether we see it or not.
What if institutions are structurally incapable of governing AI?
An examination of the structural mismatch between institutional timescales and the pace of AI development.
What if AI destroys the shared reality that democracy requires?
How AI-generated content threatens the epistemic foundations of democratic governance.
What if AI creates a permanent cognitive caste system?
The risk that AI concentrates cognitive advantage among those who already hold power.
What if AI's greatest gift is also its deepest trap?
The paradox of universal access to intelligence and the hidden costs of cognitive abundance.
What if every company acting rationally destroys the economy?
How individually rational AI adoption creates collectively catastrophic economic outcomes.
What if we win every battle and lose what made the war worth fighting?
The existential risk of outsourcing human cognition, creativity, and struggle to machines.
What if AI dissolves the nation-state from above, below, and within?
How AI challenges national sovereignty through corporate power, transnational systems, and internal disruption.
What if the economy was never about labor in the first place?
A reexamination of national wealth in an age when human labor may no longer be the foundation of economic value.