I saw this in a dream.

Here's how hope dies: first as a promise and then as a compliance report. A reformer gets elected to fix a nation's broken system. Vox populi vox dei and all that. Change you can believe in! Once "in power," the reformer discovers the throne is mostly theatre. The new team's earnest efforts drown in bureaucracy - endless task groups and committees, piling plans and proposals, all eager to help, yet nothing moves. The old state machine grinds on, indifferent. An invisible windowpane somehow stops positive change from happening, as if a shadowy system existed beyond and beneath the visible levers of power. The result? Not reform, but more of the same - only heavier, slower, worse. We promised less of x and more of y; we delivered x+2=y. You know the story. Many such cases.

Let's speculate for a bit. One day, a future AI historian will be asked to describe the state of human civilization circa 2024, at the end of history, in one line. Being a clever and witty AI, our future historian will no doubt trawl through the memetic detritus of our time in search of the perfect one-liner to capture the essence of the zeitgeist. Among the petabytes of Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and X banalities, the AI might stumble on this obscure memetic artifact: a phone camera photo of a sign hastily printed on standard A4 paper, folded in half, and casually taped to the front panel of a vending machine. Its message reads, "The light inside has broken but I still work."

Not long ago, on April 12, it was Yuri's night, the anniversary of the first human in space. It passed without much fanfare, as it usually does, unnoticed by global media and most people. Of course, it would be. Ask around - Yuri's dive into the cosmos makes no sense whatsoever. Went first into space, so what? We have so many problems here on Earth!

The great modern philosopher Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face." Future historians will no doubt develop many theories about the initial impetus behind this profound insight, but Tyson might as well have been referring to the main predicament of complex systems: operating and surviving more or less intact in the maze of unpredictability. Any system can develop the perfect and highly optimized operation plan, with just-in-time this and agile that, but all beautiful flowcharts can, and usually do, crumble under the onslaught of reality. The drama of all systems, both simple and complex, is in the precarious balance between maintaining operational efficiency and adapting to unforeseen challenges that punch you in the face.

We live in a time of swarm networks, full spectrum memetic warfare, and ubiquitous AI discourse-mongers. Automated dark algos package, aggregate, and curate all social content for maximum cognitive impact. The influence of shadowy consent architects is already pervasive, only to become stronger as more powerful AI discourse-mongers come alive.

The setting

With the arrival of Apple Vision Pro and Large Language Models running rampant, we are close to on-demand AI-generated VR realms tailored to our wildest fantasies. We can also expect customized algorithmic jesters to socialize and guide us in these fantasy realms. Here are some preliminary ways of framing this future:

Here are some of the occult practices of Late Stage Managerial Mysticism, as narrated to me in a dream by an initiate.