The traditional life path of school-to-career is obsolete. People now construct "modular" lives from gig work, side hustles, and short stints. Education will follow, shifting from traditional diplomas to a customized system of certificates and virtual apprenticeships acquired over a lifetime.
Companies like Facebook and YouTube feign precise control, but their use of blunt instruments—like banning all political ads or disabling all comments on certain videos—proves they can't manage content at a micro level and are struggling with the chaos of their own systems.
Once a fringe movement, preparing for disaster is now mainstream. Driven by the pandemic and extreme weather, ordinary people are stockpiling goods, valuing home features like large pantries, and seeking self-sufficiency. This reflects a broader societal shift towards a "bunker mentality" and distrust in institutions.
We mistakenly analyze AI hallucinations, social media misinformation, and crypto volatility as distinct issues. They are all symptoms of the same phenomenon: "meganets." These complex human-machine systems are defined by volume, velocity, and virality, making them inherently uncontrollable and prone to cascading failures.
Instead of trying to identify and censor specific "bad" content, a more effective strategy is to use non-targeted, "soft" approaches. This involves temporarily deranking any content spreading too quickly and injecting randomness into recommendation algorithms to break up echo chambers and soften feedback loops.
The catastrophic disruption anticipated from Y2K in 2000 never materialized. The real societal reset occurred 20 years later, when the 2020 pandemic and calls for racial justice simultaneously upended global norms, marking the true start of the 21st century's defining challenges and changes.