In edition #11 (and the last of 2024):

• My last post of 2024 rounds up my thoughts on the meaning of AI-human collaboration, from buying time to driving our human evolution forward.

• Sent to you from the beach in the Philippines 🇵🇭 🏖️

• Maligayang pasko and happy holidays from my family to yours! 🎅🏽🌴

Beyond Buying Time: How AI is Driving Human Evolution

For years, I've been building technology that allows people to create AI versions of themselves - digital twins that can work while they sleep. What began as a vision of the future of work has led me to a profound realization: AI isn't just changing how we work - it's driving the next chapter in human evolution.

Reframing AI's Role

The ChatGPT moment transformed society's relationship with AI overnight. From my vantage point, the narrative shifted dramatically from "beware of deepfakes" to "use AI or be left behind." But both perspectives miss something fundamental: AI isn't competing with human intelligence - it's becoming part of how we think, just as writing and mathematics did before it.

This insight emerges from cognitive science, which shows us that human intelligence has always evolved through tools that extend our thinking. When the Greeks added vowels to their writing system, they didn't just improve communication - they enabled new forms of systematic thought and cultural achievement. Similarly, AI represents not just a computational tool but a new frontier in human cognitive evolution.

The Extension of Human Intelligence

This evolution through tools isn't new - throughout history, humans have developed psycho-technologies that extend our cognitive capabilities. Each advance shaped not just how we communicate but how we think. Mathematics gave us tools to understand patterns our unaided minds never could. Written language enabled us to build on ideas across generations.

AI represents the next frontier in this evolution of human cognition. Like its predecessors, it's not merely an external tool but a technology that becomes integrated into our cognitive processes, reshaping how we think and interact with the world. The key insight is that this integration enhances rather than diminishes our fundamental human capabilities.

Meaning through Embodied Intelligence

The 4E's of cognitive science illuminate something profound: human cognition emerges from being embodied biological beings, embedded within environments, enacting with our world, and extending our capabilities through tools. This framework helps us understand AI's natural place in human development - not as a competitor but as an extension of our cognitive capabilities.

Our embodied intelligence - our ability to feel, sense, and know through our bodies - becomes even more significant as algorithmic thinking becomes commodified. This isn't about retreating to what machines can't do; it's about recognizing that human cognition has always been a blend of multiple types of intelligence.

A New Kind of Organization

The real opportunity of AI lies not in its direct applications but in its secondary effects - how it reshapes human potential and responsibility. As AI handles routine tasks, we're seeing the emergence of fundamentally new organizational structures. Consider a $1B AI-augmented company (covered in my last post) where the CEO maintains direct email contact with every customer, while the first non-engineering hire - a lawyer who also oversees HR and operations - moves fluidly across traditional boundaries. This isn't simply about doing more with less. It exemplifies how humans adapt when freed from routine constraints, combining deep expertise with broad responsibility. This evolution in human work patterns reveals something vital about our future: those who thrive will be those who can adapt, who can step into expanded roles that demand both depth and breadth.

The Evolution of Human Value

The Virtual Human Economy creates infrastructure where digital extensions work for us, not the other way around. But this freedom comes with a profound responsibility. As AI handles more routine cognitive tasks, we're called to focus more deeply on what machines cannot do: caring, creating meaning, building real relationships. Those who stop questioning, who cease creating meaning, will be most vulnerable in this new landscape.

This is perhaps the most significant insight: AI isn't just freeing us from routine work - it's pushing us to evolve. The future belongs not to those who can simply coexist with AI, but to those who can adapt and grow into more fully realized versions of themselves. This means developing both deep expertise and the ability to work across boundaries, cultivating both analytical skills and emotional intelligence, maintaining both professional capability and human connection.

A New Kind of Freedom - And Responsibility

What's at stake isn't just economic efficiency or productivity - it's the next chapter in human evolution. As AI handles the computational heavy lifting, we must step up to higher forms of creativity, responsibility, and meaning-making. This isn't optional - it's essential to our continued evolution as a species.

Shaping Our Future

The virtuous cycle we're building - where humans feed creativity into AI systems, which in turn frees humans for more imagination and responsibility - only works if we actively participate in our own evolution. The challenge ahead isn't just to use AI effectively, but to grow into the expanded human potential it makes possible.

As 2024 draws to a close, I return to what first inspired me: technology that allows people to create AI versions of themselves that they can put to work on their behalf. What began as a vision of extended human capability has revealed something more profound: AI isn't just a tool to extend ourselves and buy time - it's part of humanity's cognitive evolution. While we can't predict exactly how this integration will unfold, we can be intentional about shaping it - ensuring that as AI extends our capabilities, we grow into rather than away from what makes us human.

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