App: Post-scarcity Framework
What purposeful vocations exist if this whole AI thing actually works out. The tech bros urge everyone to become entrepreneurs or work closely with one. It might just be bigger than that.
This is an App challenges the potential careers and paths of purpose in a post-scarcity dominated future. As with the other App, I’m not guessing or cheerleading for AI to take our jobs, but what are the new jobs that might be invented, or, if work is optional, paths you can pursue instead of just playing golf. (Not that there is anything wrong with that! In fact sports may be one of the most resilient careers because nobody wants to see human vs robots. Its the power of limits).
This DRAFT App is free to use and allows you to save and export the results of your interactions.
It is open source on github.
Deep-Dive: Post-scarcity Framework
This is an interactive framework for understanding progress across multiple domains in an assumed abundant future. If you don’t agree, you can create your own or take the code and rewrite it, make it better, be my guest 👋.
Many pundits, perticularly the tech bros building the generative AI frontier models are predicting a post-scarcity future possible within variable timeframes, from 5 to 20 years. Along the way they also acknowledge that the transition will at best tumultuous and also possibly an extinction event. This small exercise is to take the optimistic side of the predictions, but recognize that humans have an opportunity for new responsibility and not become infantilised by the ease of abundance and availability of distraction (starting with the excess of streaming entertainment and gaming that many nation’s citizens already have access to).
Some other writing and experiments on this are:
Purpose
This framework aims to replace the current global “stress and debt” culture with empowering direction. It offers a conceptual scaffolding for navigating progress across biological, cultural, technological, and consciousness-based domains in the short term (decades). The plan is to allow the domains to be edited for your own purposes, the defaults are just the best practices that the author has identified.
Structure
Meta-Layer: Cosmic Reciprocity + Wisdom
Wake up or Grow up?
The governing consciousness that spans all domains below. Progress without this meta-layer becomes destructive extraction.
Cosmic Reciprocity: The mathematical law of universal balance. “If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years, but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt. It is a mathematical law and all life is mathematics.” (Gurdjieff/Bennett)
Wisdom: The discernment to know how, when, and whether to act. Wu-wei (non-action) as operational mode - governing like frying a small fish, where too much poking ruins it.
Together, these prevent scenarios like strip-mining celestial bodies for computronium1 - progress that prioritizes expansion without considering reciprocal maintenance of cosmic systems.
Six Domains of Progress
Each domain operates at both individual (micro) and collective (macro) scales - “as above, so below.”
Exploration - Research into: Space/multi-planetary, mathematics, physics, biology, nanotechnology. Implementation and innovations of products, tools.
Psychological Health - Education, cognitive bias reduction, meditation, neural modifications
Transhumanism - Life extension, physical augmentation, consciousness upload, human-machine integration
Society - Alternative economics, new governance, cultural evolution, play-based structures
Spiritual/Psychic/Magic - Paranormal exploration, energetics, consciousness research, belief system evolution
Aesthetic/Creative Progress - Novel art forms, sensory experiences, new beauty paradigms
Using the Visualization
Main View: The architectural monument shows the meta-layer as a golden slab resting on six vertical pillars (domains). This visual metaphor represents how wisdom governs all foundational domains.
Interaction:
Hover over any pillar or the meta-layer to see it lift and glow
Click to view detailed practices within that domain
Each practice is labeled as Individual, Collective, or Both scales
Use the scale filters to view practices by specific scale
Key Principles
As Above, So Below
True progress requires embodiment at both scales. Individual practices (meditation, personal creativity) and collective structures (governance systems, cultural frameworks) must develop in parallel. One without the other creates imbalance.
AI’s Role
AI augments intelligence but shouldn’t lead where human experience and values are central:
High contribution: Exploration, Transhumanism (pattern recognition, optimization, simulation)
Augmentative: Psychological Health, Aesthetic/Creative Progress (tools for new capabilities)
Human-led: Society, Spiritual/Psychic/Magic (meaning-making, empathic navigation)
Wisdom meta-layer: AI can model consequences but cannot replace human judgment
Prevention Over Regulation
The meta-layer isn’t bureaucratic regulation. It’s elevated judgment that sees the whole system - like philosopher-kings, but with AI-augmented wisdom systems (simulations, bias checks, consequence modeling) feeding human discernment.
Background
This framework draws from:
Gurdjieff/Bennett’s Fourth Way (reciprocal maintenance, cosmic law)
Taoist wu-wei (Chapter 57, 60, 63 of Tao Te Ching)
Contemporary transhumanist and futurist thought
Cultural progress theory
The goal is rigorous conceptual frameworks that operate across individual and collective scales to empower people with direction toward meaning and purpose.Post-scarcity Framework
An interactive framework for understanding progress across multiple domains in an assumed abundant future.
Many pundits, perticularly the tech bros building the generative AI frontier models are predicting a post-scarcity future possible within variable timeframes, from 5 to 20 years. Along the way they also acknowledge that the transition will at best tumultuous and also possibly an extinction event. This small exercise is to take the optimistic side of the predictions, but recognize that humans have an opportunity for new responsibility and not become infantilised by the ease of abundance and availability of distraction (starting with the excess of streaming entertainment and gaming that many nation’s citizens already have access to).
Some other writing and experiments on this are:
and the accompanying post for this toy is:
Purpose
This framework aims to replace the current global “stress and debt” culture with empowering direction. It offers a conceptual scaffolding for navigating progress across biological, cultural, technological, and consciousness-based domains in the short term (decades). The plan is to allow the domains to be edited for your own purposes, the defaults are just the best practices that the author has identified.
Structure
Meta-Layer: Cosmic Reciprocity + Wisdom
Wake up or Grow up?
The governing consciousness that spans all domains below. Progress without this meta-layer becomes destructive extraction.
Cosmic Reciprocity: The mathematical law of universal balance. “If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years, but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt. It is a mathematical law and all life is mathematics.” (Gurdjieff/Bennett)
Wisdom: The discernment to know how, when, and whether to act. Wu-wei (non-action) as operational mode - governing like frying a small fish, where too much poking ruins it.
Together, these prevent scenarios like strip-mining celestial bodies for computronium - progress that prioritizes expansion without considering reciprocal maintenance of cosmic systems.
Six Domains of Progress
Each domain operates at both individual (micro) and collective (macro) scales - “as above, so below.”
Exploration - Space/multi-planetary, mathematics, physics, biology, nanotechnology
Psychological Health - Education, cognitive bias reduction, meditation, neural modifications
Transhumanism - Life extension, physical augmentation, consciousness upload, human-machine integration
Society - Alternative economics, new governance, cultural evolution, play-based structures
Spiritual/Psychic/Magic - Paranormal exploration, energetics, consciousness research, belief system evolution
Aesthetic/Creative Progress - Novel art forms, sensory experiences, new beauty paradigms
Using the Visualization
Main View: The architectural monument shows the meta-layer as a golden slab resting on six vertical pillars (domains). This visual metaphor represents how wisdom governs all foundational domains.
Interaction:
Hover over any pillar or the meta-layer to see it lift and glow
Click to view detailed practices within that domain
Each practice is labeled as Individual, Collective, or Both scales
Use the scale filters to view practices by specific scale
Key Principles
As Above, So Below
True progress requires embodiment at both scales. Individual practices (meditation, personal creativity) and collective structures (governance systems, cultural frameworks) must develop in parallel. One without the other creates imbalance.
AI’s Role
AI augments intelligence but shouldn’t lead where human experience and values are central:
High contribution: Exploration, Transhumanism (pattern recognition, optimization, simulation)
Augmentative: Psychological Health, Aesthetic/Creative Progress (tools for new capabilities)
Human-led: Society, Spiritual/Psychic/Magic (meaning-making, empathic navigation)
Wisdom meta-layer: AI can model consequences but cannot replace human judgment
Prevention Over Regulation
The meta-layer isn’t bureaucratic regulation. It’s elevated judgment that sees the whole system - like philosopher-kings, but with AI-augmented wisdom systems (simulations, bias checks, consequence modeling) feeding human discernment.
Background
This framework draws from:
Gurdjieff/Bennett’s Fourth Way (reciprocal maintenance, cosmic law)
Taoist wu-wei (Chapter 57, 60, 63 of Tao Te Ching)
Contemporary transhumanist and futurist thought
Cultural progress theory
The goal is rigorous conceptual frameworks that operate across individual and collective scales to empower people with direction toward meaning and purpose.
Often joked about by Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross on the Moonshots podcast. The reference is to an hypothesised substance that is programmable matter, popularized by Ray Kurzweil and a science fiction book, Accelerando by Charles Stross.