[DRAFT CONTENT - TO BE REPLACED]
The Lens
There is a subtler threat than job loss or economic disruption. It is the gradual erosion of the capacities that make human life meaningful - not because AI takes them away, but because we voluntarily surrender them.
Every cognitive task we delegate to AI is a muscle we stop exercising. Every decision we outsource is a judgment we stop developing. Every creative act we automate is an experience we stop having. Individually, each delegation is rational. Collectively, they hollow out the human.
The risk is not that AI becomes superhuman. It is that humans become subhuman - not in capability, but in the richness and depth of lived experience. We may build a world of maximum efficiency and minimum meaning, where everything works perfectly and nothing matters.
The False Remedies
”Use AI as a tool, not a replacement”
The distinction between tool and replacement is harder to maintain in practice than in principle. Tools reshape their users. The calculator did not just assist with arithmetic; it atrophied the capacity for mental math. AI will not just assist with thinking; it will atrophy the capacity for deep, sustained, independent thought.
”Human connection will remain”
The assumption that AI will handle the cognitive work while humans focus on relationships and connection ignores how deeply cognition is woven into human connection. The conversations that matter most - about meaning, values, and purpose - require the very cognitive capacities that AI threatens to atrophy.
”People will choose wisely”
The faith in individual choice ignores the structural incentives that drive adoption. In a competitive environment, those who delegate more to AI outperform those who insist on doing things the hard way. The choice is not free; it is coerced by the logic of competition.
What We Actually Need
National
Cultural and educational institutions that actively cultivate the human capacities most threatened by AI - deep reading, sustained attention, independent reasoning, creative struggle. Not as luxuries or hobbies, but as essential infrastructure for a meaningful human future.
Global
An international commitment to preserving domains of human experience that are not optimized, automated, or mediated by AI. Protected spaces - in education, art, governance, and daily life - where human beings engage directly with the difficulty and richness of unassisted existence.