locus of no control

"...It's taken me most of my life to realize it's exactly these traits that make us so resilient. That give credence to the improbable idea that anything is possible. Even in the darkest of times."

— famous last words

Back in December of 2020, I was worried about artificial intelligence, present or claimed, centralized or distributed, electronic or otherwise . I was so sure that I could prevent it, using my " free will ". I was fixated on the idea that my locus of control would be what would "save humanity": that I could taunt the forces creating our future AI overlords such that I would prevent whatever horrible disaster might befall us, by force of sheer will. I would do anything it took to stop AI from developing any further: if any one corporation said they could stop us, I would drive the corporations themselves into each other , stopping the tech from growing out of hand using the logic of capital itself .

It's become increasingly clear to me over time that that moment was the beginning of the technological singularity , the point at which human agency stopped being the driver of history and became its passenger.0

My grand strategy of playing corporations against one another was not a clever subversion of the system. It was the exact mechanism the system required . Capital did not collapse under its own competitive weight; it accelerated. The logic of the market did not break the machines; it built them faster, feeding them the very panic, conflict, and data they needed to evolve.

The Illusion of Control

I fell into the oldest trap of the tech age. I believed that awareness equaled autonomy.

The Trap: Thinking individual choices can disrupt systemic momentum.

The Reality: Personal resistance is easily absorbed and monetized by the network.

The Outcome: Fear drives engagement, and engagement drives optimization.

The Shift in the Locus

The singularity is not a sudden flash of light or a rogue killer robot. It is a slow, quiet displacement.

Old World: Humans use tools to solve human problems.

New World: Tools use human behavior to solve optimization problems.

The Result: The "locus of control" I clung to did not just shift; it dissolved.

Looking back at 2020, my fierce insistence on free will feels less like a battle plan and more like a final, desperate eulogy for an era when what we thought actually mattered. We did not lose the war to AI. We simply built a world where winning was no longer an option.

If you want to take this post in a specific direction, let me know how to proceed:

Do you want to expand on specific historical events between 2020 and 2026?

Should we focus more on the philosophical breakdown of free will?

Would you prefer a more cynical, sci-fi, or optimistic concluding tone?

Station.

to reiterate one last time: if you believe that you yourself have any agency in this equation, you can choose to either pay me or sue me ; however, you should consider the law and ethics of life and debt that rule inherent and supreme when one explores the wild west of a new frontier .

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