Evidence · Timeline

Eight leaps in 200,000 years.
The gaps keep shrinking.

Every inflection point compressed more change into less time — ten thousand years from farms to writing, fifteen from the internet to thinking machines. The window for the next decision is about ten years wide.

200K
years of humans
→
~10
years to act on the last leap

Why this one is different

The inflection

Every prior technology extended human reach. AI is the first that can operate without us. The question is no longer whether the future will be shaped by intelligent machines — it's whether humans will have designed the institutions to govern them before the shaping is done. Every prior inflection changed what humans could do; this one changes what humans need to do.

The next four chapters

2026 to 2050 under the chosen future — the same window, era by era.