In the future, there will be millions, and then billions, and then trillions of broadly superhuman AIs thinking and acting at 100x human speed (or faster). If all goes well, what might it feel like to live in the world as it undergoes this transformation?
Analogy: Imagine being a typical person living in England from 1520 to 2020 (500 years) but experiencing time 100x slower than everyone else, so to you it feels like only five years have passed:
Year 1 (1520–1620). A year of political turmoil. In February, Henry VIII breaks with Rome. By March, the monasteries are dissolved. In May, Mary burns Protestants; by the end of May, Elizabeth reverses everything again. Three religions of state in the span of a season. In September, the Spanish Armada sails and fails. Jamestown is founded around November. The East India Company is chartered. But the texture of life is identical in December to what it was in January. You still read by candlelight, travel by horse, communicate by letter. Your religious opinions may have flip-flopped a bit but you are still Christian. The New World is interesting news but nothing more.
Year 2 (1620–1720). In March, civil war breaks out. By April, the king is beheaded — a man who ruled by divine right, executed by his own Parliament! In June, the Great Plague sweeps London, killing a quarter of its population. Weeks later, the Great Fire burns it to the ground. In September, Newton publishes the Principia, recasting the universe as a mechanism of mathematical laws. The Glorious Revolution replaces one king with another, this time by Parliament's invitation, with a Bill of Rights attached. In the moment, the political event feels bigger. Later you’ll realize Newton mattered more. Newcomen builds a steam engine in November. It pumps water out of mines. You don't see what the hype is about.
Year 3 (1720–1820). The last year in which you will feel at home in the world. In May, the Seven Years' War makes Britain the dominant global power; the Ne
