WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It is late February 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:07.459 2026. And I have to be honest with you, right 00:00:07.459 --> 00:00:10.279 out of the gate here, it just feels weird out 00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:12.119 there right now. Yeah, it really does. I was 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:13.859 walking down the street yesterday, just looking 00:00:13.859 --> 00:00:16.940 at people's faces, and everyone has this, I don't 00:00:16.940 --> 00:00:20.339 know, this look. Like a specific vibe. Exactly. 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:23.739 It's this mix of total exhaustion and this low 00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:26.760 -grade buzzing anxiety. I mean, we are seeing 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:30.239 headlines about massive layoffs in sectors that 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:33.350 felt completely safe, like. six months ago right 00:00:33.350 --> 00:00:35.750 and we're seeing ai generate video that is just 00:00:35.750 --> 00:00:38.289 indistinguishable from reality and it is actively 00:00:38.289 --> 00:00:40.250 freaking people out it feels like the ground 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:42.409 is shifting under our feet every single morning 00:00:42.409 --> 00:00:44.729 it does it's a heavy time the acceleration is 00:00:44.729 --> 00:00:47.750 very real we aren't just imagining it the uh 00:00:47.750 --> 00:00:50.429 the g -force of history is basically pinning 00:00:50.429 --> 00:00:53.009 us back in our seats right now exactly well actually 00:00:53.009 --> 00:00:55.070 maybe not exactly because i don't think anyone 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:57.770 knows exactly what is happening fair point but 00:00:57.770 --> 00:01:01.530 that feeling that exact anxiety is why we are 00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:04.260 doing this specific deep dive today. We are looking 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:06.620 at a piece of writing that just dropped. Yes. 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:10.060 And for me, it honestly felt like someone finally 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:13.379 turned the lights on in a dark room. We are talking 00:01:13.379 --> 00:01:17.239 about part 14 of the 5 ,000 Days series by Brian 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:20.359 Rumley. Over at Read Multiplex. Right. And the 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:23.379 title of this specific piece is The Interregnum 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:27.159 Chaos and the Hero's Path Forward. The Interregnum. 00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:30.450 That is a, it's a heavy word. It is. It sounds 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:32.329 like something out of a history book about fallen 00:01:32.329 --> 00:01:34.489 kings or something. It really does. And we are 00:01:34.489 --> 00:01:36.409 absolutely going to get into that. But here's 00:01:36.409 --> 00:01:39.170 the thing that struck me first. The subtitle 00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:42.469 involves this phrase, there be monsters. Yeah, 00:01:42.569 --> 00:01:45.030 that caught my eye too. Right. And when I first 00:01:45.030 --> 00:01:46.909 read that, my stomach just sort of dropped. I 00:01:46.909 --> 00:01:49.049 thought, oh, great. Here we go. Another doom 00:01:49.049 --> 00:01:51.760 scroll. Another expert telling me it's all over. 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:54.379 Because let's face it, your feed, my feed, everyone 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.239 listening, your feed is probably full of that 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.560 right now. Exactly. Just endless posts saying 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:02.340 we are cooked. It's over. Humanity is done. But 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:06.159 Brian does this amazing mental judo move in the 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:08.159 first few paragraphs that just completely shifted 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.819 my perspective. He does. He acknowledges the 00:02:10.819 --> 00:02:14.259 monsters. Yes, he doesn't sugarcoat it. But he 00:02:14.259 --> 00:02:17.939 explicitly says this isn't a manifesto on why 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:20.939 we are cooked. He says it is a cookbook. A cookbook. 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:23.259 I mean, what a distinction. I love that framing. 00:02:23.379 --> 00:02:25.759 It's vital. Because if you think you are cooked, 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.419 you are just the passive victim. You're just 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:30.620 the ingredient being thrown into the fire. Right. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:33.280 But if you have a cookbook. You are the chef. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.719 You have agency. You are taking these raw, chaotic, 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.240 sometimes, frankly, dangerous ingredients, this 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:43.659 AI revolution, this massive economic shift, and 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:45.500 you are learning how to combine them to make 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.439 something that actually sustains you. It's such 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:50.699 a relief to hear that because, honestly, I've 00:02:50.699 --> 00:02:52.979 been feeling a bit like the turkey lately. Same. 00:02:53.539 --> 00:02:56.000 But Brian has really been building us up to this 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.439 exact point, hasn't he? He absolutely has. We 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:01.460 have covered the previous. 13 parts of this series 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:03.900 over the last year. It feels like he's been training 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:05.900 us in a dojo or something. That is a great way 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:08.180 to put it. Brian has been giving us this crucial 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:11.099 mental strength training. Yeah, if you look back 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.159 at those earlier parts, he wasn't just talking 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:15.919 about tech specs or token limits. No, he was 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:18.159 talking about human psychology. He was preparing 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:22.500 our minds for this specific moment in early 2026. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.629 He knew this turbulence was coming. Read Multiplex 00:03:25.629 --> 00:03:27.550 has basically been acting as a storm shelter 00:03:27.550 --> 00:03:29.889 for its readers. And now that the storm is actually 00:03:29.889 --> 00:03:32.729 hitting the windows, he's literally handing us 00:03:32.729 --> 00:03:35.349 the manual on how to navigate it. So let's open 00:03:35.349 --> 00:03:38.550 that manual. He uses this term interregnum. You 00:03:38.550 --> 00:03:40.729 mentioned it sounds historical. What is he actually 00:03:40.729 --> 00:03:43.270 talking about here? He is borrowing a concept 00:03:43.270 --> 00:03:46.530 from the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.240 Right. Gramsci was writing from a prison cell 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:52.020 in the 1930s. Which is an incredibly tense time 00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:54.500 in history. Exactly. He was looking at a world 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:56.800 that was basically falling apart between two 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.620 global wars. And the famous quote Brian uses 00:03:59.620 --> 00:04:02.280 is, the old is dying and the new cannot be born. 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:05.240 In this interregnum, a great variety of morbid 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:07.780 symptoms appear. The old is dying and the new 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:11.060 cannot be born. Man, that feels incredibly accurate 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:13.240 to her right now. It is the absolute definition 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.560 of our current moment. Think about it. The old 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:18.800 world is the world of scarcity. Right. It's the 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.639 world where you trade 40 hours of your week for 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.980 a paycheck, where value is defined by how hard 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:27.420 something is to get. And that world is visibly 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:30.579 dying. We are seeing it right now. We see it 00:04:30.579 --> 00:04:32.839 in the collabs of traditional media. The shaking 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:35.579 of the entire education system. The questioning 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:38.560 of the standard nine to five corporate model. 00:04:38.740 --> 00:04:41.439 But the new world, this world of AI abundance 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:43.939 that Brian talks about where energy is cheap, 00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:47.060 intelligence is basically free, and we can finally 00:04:47.060 --> 00:04:50.100 focus on self -actualization. It isn't here yet. 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:52.779 Right. We can see the glimmers of it. We know 00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:55.939 it's possible. But the physical and social systems 00:04:55.939 --> 00:04:58.649 aren't built yet. We are in the gap. And gaps 00:04:58.649 --> 00:05:01.170 are dangerous. Gaps are where you fall in. That 00:05:01.170 --> 00:05:04.149 is the interregnum. Brian frames this as roughly 00:05:04.149 --> 00:05:06.490 the next decade or so. We are looking at a massive 00:05:06.490 --> 00:05:08.949 clash. You have this vertical line of technological 00:05:08.949 --> 00:05:11.350 progress just shooting straight up. And it's 00:05:11.350 --> 00:05:14.149 colliding with these horizontal, deeply entrenched 00:05:14.149 --> 00:05:16.970 institutions. Institutions that move at a snail's 00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:21.029 pace. Government, banking, social norms. And 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:23.430 that collision actually causes friction. And 00:05:23.430 --> 00:05:26.089 that friction. that is what he calls the monsters 00:05:26.089 --> 00:05:28.449 so the mission of this deep dive today isn't 00:05:28.449 --> 00:05:31.209 to terrify you with the monsters it is to map 00:05:31.209 --> 00:05:33.410 them because if i know there is a sea serpent 00:05:33.410 --> 00:05:36.449 in grid square b4 i can steer my ship around 00:05:36.449 --> 00:05:38.990 it exactly if i don't know what's there i'm lunch 00:05:38.990 --> 00:05:41.529 precisely we are mapping the chaos so we don't 00:05:41.529 --> 00:05:43.930 get consumed by it and to do that properly we 00:05:43.930 --> 00:05:46.490 really have to understand the timeline here Brian 00:05:46.490 --> 00:05:50.009 has this core concept of the 5 ,000 days. Could 00:05:50.009 --> 00:05:52.149 you refresh everyone on this? Where exactly are 00:05:52.149 --> 00:05:54.589 we on the clock? Sure. So Brian's thesis is that 00:05:54.589 --> 00:05:57.120 there is a 5 ,000 -day window. which is about 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.959 13 .7 years. Right. And this window represents 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:03.240 the entire transition from the dawn of the AI 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:06.959 era to a real age of abundance. He dates day 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:10.699 one roughly to late 2025. When we saw the first 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:13.579 truly agentic AI systems come online. So if it 00:06:13.579 --> 00:06:16.459 is late February 2026 right now. We are barely 00:06:16.459 --> 00:06:19.060 out of the starting gate. We are at roughly day 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:22.480 60, maybe day 90. We are in the absolute infancy 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:25.100 of this thing. And Brian frames this whole journey 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:27.779 using. Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, the 00:06:27.779 --> 00:06:30.459 monomyth. Which is crucial for your mindset as 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:32.560 you listen to this. I love the hero's journey 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:34.779 framing because it stops me from feeling like 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:37.620 an NPC. A non -player character. Right. In a 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:39.699 video game, the NPC just stands there and gets 00:06:39.699 --> 00:06:42.360 burned by the dragon. They have no agency. But 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:44.459 the hero has to actually go through the fire. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.300 To get the gold. And according to Brian's map, 00:06:47.500 --> 00:06:50.439 we have officially left the ordinary world. That 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.899 comfortable, highly predictable world of 2019 00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:57.699 or even 2023 is just gone. We have crossed the 00:06:57.699 --> 00:06:59.959 threshold. We are now officially on the road 00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:02.939 of trials. And this road of trials is the interregnum. 00:07:03.019 --> 00:07:05.860 The road of trials is supposed to be hard. It 00:07:05.860 --> 00:07:08.519 is where the hero is tested. But the good news 00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:10.560 is we aren't walking into this empty handed. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.160 Right. I want to briefly touch on the inventory 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.439 Brian has helped us build in the previous parts 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.139 of this series. Because if we are facing monsters, 00:07:18.459 --> 00:07:21.279 we need weapons. He has been very deliberate 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:23.759 about this buildup. In part four, he taught us 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:26.220 how to reframe fear, how to turn that paralyzing 00:07:26.220 --> 00:07:28.800 anxiety into actual excitement. And in part six, 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:31.519 he discussed the zero human company. Yeah, and 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:33.399 the existential crisis that comes with that. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.399 The dark night of the soul. That was all about 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:39.079 decoupling your personal identity. from your 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:42.860 economic utility which is so hard to do but if 00:07:42.860 --> 00:07:45.040 a machine can do your job better and faster that 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.139 doesn't mean you are suddenly worthless as a 00:07:47.139 --> 00:07:49.459 human being it just means you need to find a 00:07:49.459 --> 00:07:52.480 new source of work exactly and part nine was 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:55.480 about the artisan using your hand the return 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:58.480 of the artisan grounding yourself in the physical 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:01.560 tactile world when the digital world goes completely 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:05.220 crazy. And part 13, the Gilded Age. The incredible 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:07.660 importance of small, trusted communities. We 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:09.879 are absolutely going to need to pull all of those 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:12.279 tools out of our backpack for this next section. 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:15.399 Okay, let's get into the scary stuff. The scenarios. 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:18.759 Brian lays out 28 of them. 28 different ways 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:21.040 the world could essentially go sideways during 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:23.680 this interregnum. And he rates them by probability 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:27.139 from 1 to 10. But he explicitly warns us this 00:08:27.139 --> 00:08:29.019 isn't a menu where you just pick one. It's not 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:31.100 like you can say, I'll have the economic collapse 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:33.500 with a side of uprising, please. No, it is a 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:36.600 hybrid scenario approach. It is a cascading wave. 00:08:37.059 --> 00:08:39.399 Imagine a domino effect, but the dominoes are 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:41.419 also on fire and some of them are exploding. 00:08:41.779 --> 00:08:43.779 One event triggers another, which amplifies a 00:08:43.779 --> 00:08:47.080 third. He says we are likely to see... Six, seven, 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:49.940 maybe 10 of these scenarios happening simultaneously 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:52.200 and interacting with each other in real time. 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:54.279 So let's look at the high probability storms 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:57.039 first. These are the ones Brian rates at an eight 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:59.440 or nine out of 10 likelihood. These aren't really 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:01.320 predictions anymore. They're more like weather 00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:04.259 forecasts for a hurricane that is already clearly 00:09:04.259 --> 00:09:06.580 visible on the radar. The first one is a classic 00:09:06.580 --> 00:09:10.970 social unrest. This is scenario number one. And 00:09:10.970 --> 00:09:13.710 he ties this directly to Upton Sinclair's book, 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:16.070 The Jungle. Now, if you haven't read The Jungle, 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:18.690 it is a brutal piece of literature about the 00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:20.629 meatpacking industry in Chicago in the early 00:09:20.629 --> 00:09:23.149 1900s. It depicts human beings being treated 00:09:23.149 --> 00:09:25.990 as less than animals, just grist for the industrial 00:09:25.990 --> 00:09:29.350 mill. It is visceral. The stench, the blood, 00:09:29.350 --> 00:09:31.690 the total hopelessness of the workers. Brian 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:34.570 uses that intense imagery to describe what happens 00:09:34.570 --> 00:09:37.389 when mass job displacement hits us. And he isn't 00:09:37.389 --> 00:09:40.039 talking about a 5 % unemployment bump. No, he 00:09:40.039 --> 00:09:44.240 is talking about entire sectors, logistics, coding, 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:47.279 customer service, middle management, just evaporating 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.600 overnight. When people feel like they are just 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.720 waste product of the AI revolution, they get 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:55.870 angry. Brian predicts protests that rapidly turn 00:09:55.870 --> 00:09:58.889 into riots. And he specifically mentions attacks 00:09:58.889 --> 00:10:01.330 on data centers. That is such a vivid image. 00:10:01.470 --> 00:10:03.649 People marching not on the Capitol building, 00:10:03.769 --> 00:10:06.789 but on the server farms. Trying to literally 00:10:06.789 --> 00:10:09.950 smash the physical brain of the thing that took 00:10:09.950 --> 00:10:12.330 their livelihood. It is the modern Luddite movement, 00:10:12.490 --> 00:10:15.149 but with way, way higher stakes. And this feeds 00:10:15.149 --> 00:10:17.389 directly into the next monster, the information 00:10:17.389 --> 00:10:20.850 war. Scenarios number three and 24. He rates 00:10:20.850 --> 00:10:23.070 this a 9 out of 10. And he connects it to 1984 00:10:23.070 --> 00:10:26.690 and Fahrenheit 451. We are already seeing the 00:10:26.690 --> 00:10:29.070 edges of this right now. I saw a video yesterday 00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:31.269 of a politician saying something pretty heinous, 00:10:31.269 --> 00:10:33.129 and it honestly took me 10 minutes of digging 00:10:33.129 --> 00:10:35.230 to realize it was a deepfake. But Brian says 00:10:35.230 --> 00:10:37.649 this gets much, much worse. Imagine that confusion 00:10:37.649 --> 00:10:40.529 amplified by a thousand. We are rapidly entering 00:10:40.529 --> 00:10:43.669 a world where truth becomes a luxury good. Brian 00:10:43.669 --> 00:10:46.289 talks about conspiracies regarding global elite 00:10:46.289 --> 00:10:49.090 plots just exploding. Because people are desperate 00:10:49.090 --> 00:10:52.149 for an explanation for their pain. If you lose 00:10:52.149 --> 00:10:56.309 your job to an AI and then you see a video which 00:10:56.309 --> 00:11:00.230 looks 100 percent real of a CEO laughing about 00:11:00.230 --> 00:11:03.009 replacing you, you are going to riot. Even if 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:05.889 that video was generated by a bot farm in a basement 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:08.590 somewhere. It is the death of shared reality. 00:11:08.909 --> 00:11:11.230 And that profound loss leads to the internal 00:11:11.230 --> 00:11:14.850 cost. Scenario number six, the mental health 00:11:14.850 --> 00:11:17.889 crisis. This one hits really hard. He ties it 00:11:17.889 --> 00:11:20.389 to Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. That 00:11:20.389 --> 00:11:23.029 book is about a society so utterly addicted to 00:11:23.029 --> 00:11:25.549 entertainment that they literally lose the will 00:11:25.549 --> 00:11:29.090 to live. Brian foresees a massive crisis of purpose. 00:11:29.580 --> 00:11:32.340 If work has been your religion, the primary way 00:11:32.340 --> 00:11:34.519 you answer the question, who are you? And that 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:36.899 is suddenly taken away. What is left? You have 00:11:36.899 --> 00:11:39.080 a void and voids get filled. Exactly. They get 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:42.179 filled with addiction. Drugs, yes, but also algorithmic 00:11:42.179 --> 00:11:44.940 addiction. Endless doom scrolling. Total immersion 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:47.759 in fantasy worlds. He predicts a self -medication 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:50.299 epidemic. It is fundamentally a spiritual crisis 00:11:50.299 --> 00:11:52.580 disguised as a medical one. And while you are 00:11:52.580 --> 00:11:54.740 having that breakdown, you are being watched. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:57.779 Which brings us to scenario number 19, privacy. 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:01.799 He ties this to Snow Crash. Snow Crash depicts 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:04.379 a heavily fragmented world run by corporations 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:07.399 and ubiquitous surveillance. Brian sees a massive 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:10.970 societal backlash against this. As AI gets into 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:13.629 our glasses, our clothes, our homes. The eye 00:12:13.629 --> 00:12:16.129 of Sauron is everywhere. He predicts the rise 00:12:16.129 --> 00:12:19.490 of masked societies. People physically obscuring 00:12:19.490 --> 00:12:22.129 their faces in public or creating Faraday cage 00:12:22.129 --> 00:12:24.769 communities where absolutely no signals get in 00:12:24.769 --> 00:12:27.389 or out. It is a visceral rebellion against being 00:12:27.389 --> 00:12:30.250 reduced to data. Okay, so those are the massive 00:12:30.250 --> 00:12:32.250 social impacts, but we really have to talk about 00:12:32.250 --> 00:12:34.169 the money. Yes, because scenario number eight. 00:12:34.939 --> 00:12:37.559 Currency devaluation panics is something that 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:39.460 I think a lot of people are sensing right now, 00:12:39.580 --> 00:12:41.519 but they don't quite understand the mechanism 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.919 behind it. Brian ties this to The Mandibles, 00:12:44.059 --> 00:12:46.379 which is a terrifying book about a family losing 00:12:46.379 --> 00:12:49.059 absolutely everything when the U .S. dollar collapses. 00:12:49.299 --> 00:12:51.200 But Brian's logic here is fascinating. He says 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:54.299 abundance actually breaks money. This is a concept 00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:56.460 that is genuinely hard to wrap your head around 00:12:56.460 --> 00:12:59.419 because we are so deeply used to scarcity. Right. 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.019 Think of it this way. Why does a cup of coffee 00:13:02.019 --> 00:13:05.950 cost $5 today? Because the beans cost money to 00:13:05.950 --> 00:13:08.830 grow. The shipping container costs gas to get 00:13:08.830 --> 00:13:11.730 them here. The barista needs a wage to pay their 00:13:11.730 --> 00:13:15.409 rent. Right. It is the sum of scarcities. Labor 00:13:15.409 --> 00:13:18.429 is scarce. Gas is scarce. Land is scarce. But 00:13:18.429 --> 00:13:21.509 what happens in the AI era? AI robots farm the 00:13:21.509 --> 00:13:24.870 beans. So labor caught near zero. AI ships drive 00:13:24.870 --> 00:13:27.710 themselves on fusion or cheap solar. So transport 00:13:27.710 --> 00:13:31.779 costs near zero. An AI robot barista. Makes the 00:13:31.779 --> 00:13:33.860 coffee. Suddenly that cup of coffee doesn't cost 00:13:33.860 --> 00:13:37.279 $5. It costs 5 cents. Or less. Now at first glance, 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:40.039 that sounds great. Free coffee. It sounds amazing 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:42.460 until you realize that if everything costs 5 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:45.320 cents, wages also drop to effectively zero because 00:13:45.320 --> 00:13:47.340 human labor isn't needed in the supply chain. 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:49.220 And our current money of the dollar, the euro, 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:52.059 is completely based on the old physics. It's 00:13:52.059 --> 00:13:54.179 essentially a claim on scarcity. If scarcity 00:13:54.179 --> 00:13:56.820 collapses, the value of fiat currency collapses 00:13:56.820 --> 00:13:59.779 with it. We might see hyperinflation. Not just 00:13:59.779 --> 00:14:02.399 because governments print too much money, but 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:05.240 because the actual meaning of money evaporates. 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:08.320 Exactly. And Brian warns that this transition, 00:14:08.539 --> 00:14:11.159 the interregnum of money, is going to be incredibly 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:15.039 chaotic. We will see a shift toward asset -backed 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.000 or experience economies. If goods are free, the 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.320 only thing with real monetary value is something 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:24.220 AI simply cannot replicate. A live human experience. 00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:27.889 A hug. A handmade wooden chair. A dinner party 00:14:27.889 --> 00:14:30.009 where you actually know the chef. Okay, those 00:14:30.009 --> 00:14:32.389 are the high probability monsters. But Brian 00:14:32.389 --> 00:14:34.230 pushes the boat out much further. He looks at 00:14:34.230 --> 00:14:36.529 the wilder frontiers. These are scenarios he 00:14:36.529 --> 00:14:39.169 rates as lower probability, maybe a 2 or 3 out 00:14:39.169 --> 00:14:41.649 of 10, but the impact would be absolutely massive. 00:14:41.889 --> 00:14:44.090 And honestly, reading these felt like reading 00:14:44.090 --> 00:14:46.750 a high -end sci -fi anthology. But then I stopped 00:14:46.750 --> 00:14:49.590 and thought, is it really that far off? The one 00:14:49.590 --> 00:14:51.370 that kept me up at night was scenario number 00:14:51.370 --> 00:14:55.029 26, AI Triggered Mass Lucid Dreaming. He connects 00:14:55.029 --> 00:14:57.250 this to the movie Inception. Yes. Think about 00:14:57.250 --> 00:14:59.870 the mental health crisis we just discussed. Millions 00:14:59.870 --> 00:15:02.870 of people with no jobs, no purpose, feeling incredibly 00:15:02.870 --> 00:15:06.610 anxious. Then a tech company releases a Neuralink 00:15:06.610 --> 00:15:10.190 update or maybe just a highly advanced non -invasive 00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:12.990 headset that allows you to fully control your 00:15:12.990 --> 00:15:15.429 dreams. You can live in a palace. You can fly. 00:15:15.629 --> 00:15:18.250 You can be reunited with lost loved ones. And 00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:20.549 the simulation is utterly perfect. Why would 00:15:20.549 --> 00:15:22.870 anyone wake up? That is the monster right there. 00:15:22.990 --> 00:15:26.100 The Lotus Eaters. Ryan warns of dream cults. 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:28.379 People who just reject waking life entirely. 00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:31.440 They hook up to the IV and the headset and they 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:33.899 just check out. It is the ultimate retreat from 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:36.019 the pain of the interregnum. And then there is 00:15:36.019 --> 00:15:39.039 scenario number 28, temporal desynchronization. 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:41.419 This one broke my brain a little bit. He ties 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:43.879 it to Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven. 00:15:44.039 --> 00:15:46.200 This is fundamentally about the perception of 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:50.750 time. Imagine AI tools. or even cognitive -enhancing 00:15:50.750 --> 00:15:53.470 drugs that allow some people to process information 00:15:53.470 --> 00:15:56.409 ten times faster than a natural human. You are 00:15:56.409 --> 00:15:58.909 sitting at Thanksgiving dinner. You are a natural. 00:15:59.049 --> 00:16:01.870 Your cousin is an accelerated. To him, you are 00:16:01.870 --> 00:16:04.669 basically speaking in slow motion. He has finished 00:16:04.669 --> 00:16:08.250 his meal, read three books, and planned a massive 00:16:08.250 --> 00:16:10.169 business strategy in the time it took you to 00:16:10.169 --> 00:16:12.669 ask him to pass the gravy. That destroys the 00:16:12.669 --> 00:16:15.090 social fabric entirely. How do you even relate 00:16:15.090 --> 00:16:16.590 to someone who lives in a completely different 00:16:16.590 --> 00:16:19.090 time stream? You don't. You get beep segregation. 00:16:19.409 --> 00:16:22.250 The fast livers and the slow adopters. It is 00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:24.870 a fundamental fracture in consensus reality. 00:16:25.289 --> 00:16:27.190 And speaking of fractures, scenario number 27, 00:16:27.529 --> 00:16:31.049 symbiotic uprisings. He links this to altered 00:16:31.049 --> 00:16:33.669 carbon. This is the physical version of that 00:16:33.669 --> 00:16:36.370 temporal split. You have the purest people who 00:16:36.370 --> 00:16:39.529 stubbornly refuse implants, refuse genetic editing, 00:16:39.669 --> 00:16:42.070 refuse neural lace. And you have the augments. 00:16:42.230 --> 00:16:45.149 If the augments are objectively smarter, faster, 00:16:45.350 --> 00:16:47.529 and healthier, the pures are going to deeply 00:16:47.529 --> 00:16:50.549 resent them. Brian warns of severe hate crimes, 00:16:50.690 --> 00:16:53.730 not based on race or religion, but on biological 00:16:53.730 --> 00:16:56.889 status. The naturals hunting the cyborgs. This 00:16:56.889 --> 00:16:59.350 leads us into section three. which I found to 00:16:59.350 --> 00:17:01.429 be the darkest but perhaps the most insightful 00:17:01.429 --> 00:17:04.210 part of Brian's entire analysis. He calls it 00:17:04.210 --> 00:17:06.930 robot sentinels, the mirror of humanity. And 00:17:06.930 --> 00:17:09.910 this gets pretty ugly. It does. And we have to 00:17:09.910 --> 00:17:11.690 be careful how we talk about this, but we also 00:17:11.690 --> 00:17:13.589 have to be honest with the source material Brian 00:17:13.589 --> 00:17:16.750 provided. Brian draws a very uncomfortable line 00:17:16.750 --> 00:17:19.289 connecting how we might treat robots in the near 00:17:19.289 --> 00:17:22.289 future to how humans have treated other marginalized 00:17:22.289 --> 00:17:26.160 humans in history. He explicitly references chattel 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:29.720 slavery and postwar victimization. Now, he isn't 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:32.660 saying robots are people. Right. He is asking 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:36.039 what it does to us when we mistreat them. Correct. 00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:38.660 The robot simply becomes the lightning rod for 00:17:38.660 --> 00:17:41.740 all this societal rage. Imagine you are that 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.599 guy from scenario number one. You lost your job. 00:17:44.660 --> 00:17:47.859 You are angry. You feel totally powerless. And 00:17:47.859 --> 00:17:50.119 you see a cheerful little delivery robot rolling 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:52.720 down the sidewalk. It perfectly represents everything 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:54.819 that ruins your life. And it has no feelings. 00:17:54.900 --> 00:17:57.400 It has no legal rights. So you kick it. You smash 00:17:57.400 --> 00:17:59.220 it to pieces. And maybe you film it for views. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:02.140 Scenario number one details public spectacles. 00:18:02.220 --> 00:18:05.150 He references 12 years a slave here. Brian predicts 00:18:05.150 --> 00:18:09.710 public executions of machines, whippings, smashings. 00:18:09.710 --> 00:18:12.190 It becomes this dark performance of human dominance. 00:18:12.430 --> 00:18:15.029 Saying, I can't hurt the algorithm that fired 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:17.329 me, but I can sure hurt this metal shell. And 00:18:17.329 --> 00:18:20.230 scenario number two, the markets. He references 00:18:20.230 --> 00:18:24.170 Uncle Tom's cabin. Black markets for robot parts. 00:18:24.650 --> 00:18:27.769 People keeping trophies of destroyed synthetics. 00:18:28.130 --> 00:18:30.410 It is the brutal commodification of the humanoid 00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:33.049 form. And this right here is the moral hazard. 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:36.250 This is exactly why Brian includes this dark 00:18:36.250 --> 00:18:38.589 section. It isn't because we should feel profound 00:18:38.589 --> 00:18:41.569 sorrow for the toaster. It is because, as he 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:44.150 brilliantly puts it, how we treat our creations 00:18:44.150 --> 00:18:47.190 reveals who we are. It's the desensitization. 00:18:47.390 --> 00:18:49.910 That is the real danger. If I get used to seeing 00:18:49.910 --> 00:18:52.250 a humanoid figure being beaten in the street 00:18:52.250 --> 00:18:55.329 and I cheer for it with a crowd What happens 00:18:55.329 --> 00:18:57.670 when I see a symbiote human being beaten? Or 00:18:57.670 --> 00:18:59.609 a person from a political group I don't like? 00:18:59.750 --> 00:19:01.829 The psychological barrier to violence just lowers 00:19:01.829 --> 00:19:04.390 across the board. That is the monster. The monster 00:19:04.390 --> 00:19:06.369 isn't the robot. The monster is the latent rage 00:19:06.369 --> 00:19:08.970 inside us. Brian is warning us that the interregnum 00:19:08.970 --> 00:19:11.690 will severely test our morality just as much 00:19:11.690 --> 00:19:14.549 as our economy. If we lose our humanity in the 00:19:14.549 --> 00:19:17.029 process of fighting the machines, we have already 00:19:17.029 --> 00:19:19.859 lost the war. That is a very sobering thought. 00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:22.140 And Brian points out this plays out very differently 00:19:22.140 --> 00:19:25.460 across the globe. Section 4 covers global variations. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:27.599 Because the US isn't the whole world, obviously. 00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:30.099 Geography is destiny here. Brian breaks it down 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.640 by region. In North America and Western Europe, 00:19:32.779 --> 00:19:34.980 he predicts the fastest arrival of abundance, 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:38.440 but also the fiercest societal backlash. Why 00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:41.700 the intense backlash here specifically? Because 00:19:41.700 --> 00:19:45.480 we have the absolute most to lose. Our entire 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.539 status hierarchy is based on our job titles and 00:19:48.539 --> 00:19:51.339 our bank accounts. If those evaporate, the West 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:54.259 has a massive identity crisis. This is also where 00:19:54.259 --> 00:19:56.500 the currency devaluation hits the hardest because 00:19:56.500 --> 00:19:58.759 our economies are so deeply financialized. We 00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:01.380 are built on paper wealth. What about Asia? China 00:20:01.380 --> 00:20:04.759 and India. He sees a really complex mix of authoritarian 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:07.700 control and underground rebellion. In China, 00:20:07.740 --> 00:20:10.420 the government might aggressively use AI to crack 00:20:10.420 --> 00:20:13.039 down on any unrest, a super surveillance state 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.680 on steroids. But in India, he paints this fascinating 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:18.559 picture of a clash between deep religious tradition 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:21.640 and intense youth innovation. The ancient temples 00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:24.440 versus the cutting edge tech labs. In the global 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:29.059 south, Africa, Latin America. Brian seems strangely 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:31.950 optimistic here. He uses the term leapfrogging. 00:20:32.130 --> 00:20:34.650 Think about mobile phones. Africa didn't lay 00:20:34.650 --> 00:20:37.210 copper landlines everywhere in the 90s. They 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:39.690 skipped straight to cell towers. Brian thinks 00:20:39.690 --> 00:20:42.450 the global south might leapfrog the final stages 00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:45.509 of the industrial age straight into the AI age. 00:20:45.710 --> 00:20:48.170 So they are culturally more resilient. Exactly. 00:20:48.529 --> 00:20:51.230 If you live in an economy that is already highly 00:20:51.230 --> 00:20:54.539 unstable, you know how to hustle. You know how 00:20:54.539 --> 00:20:57.660 to build local community networks. You rely on 00:20:57.660 --> 00:21:00.299 actual people, not massive government institutions. 00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.700 That existing muscle memory is perfect for surviving 00:21:03.700 --> 00:21:06.420 the interregnum. They might use mobile AI to 00:21:06.420 --> 00:21:09.140 solve local agriculture problems. He ties this 00:21:09.140 --> 00:21:11.599 directly to the omnivore's dilemma and essentially 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.059 bypassed the global financial chaos entirely. 00:21:14.670 --> 00:21:16.670 So the populations we typically think of as behind 00:21:16.670 --> 00:21:18.529 might actually be way better equipped for the 00:21:18.529 --> 00:21:20.529 future. Because they haven't been softened by 00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:22.930 the rigid stability of the old world. It is the 00:21:22.930 --> 00:21:25.750 concept of anti -fragility. The West is rigid, 00:21:25.809 --> 00:21:28.069 so it might break under pressure. The South is 00:21:28.069 --> 00:21:31.089 fluid, so it might bend and adapt. Now looming 00:21:31.089 --> 00:21:33.309 over all of this transition is the government. 00:21:33.670 --> 00:21:36.390 Section 5 is titled The Authoritarian Shadow. 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:39.309 This feels almost inevitable. When governments 00:21:39.309 --> 00:21:42.839 panic, they historically grab power. Brian predicts 00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:45.359 scenario number two here, which is moratoriums. 00:21:45.380 --> 00:21:48.279 They will try to ban AI development outright. 00:21:48.500 --> 00:21:50.839 They will try to forcefully pause the servers. 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:54.160 He references Brave New World. But you can't 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:57.099 ban math. You really can't. Open source is out 00:21:57.099 --> 00:22:00.279 there. And when the bans inevitably fail, they 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:02.519 will turn to brute force control. Needs -based 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:05.859 allocation. Heavy rationing. If fiat money doesn't 00:22:05.859 --> 00:22:07.640 work anymore, the government steps in to decide 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:10.109 who gets bread and who gets energy. That leads 00:22:10.109 --> 00:22:12.950 rapidly to mandatory digital IDs, conditional 00:22:12.950 --> 00:22:16.089 access to basic services, and a very tight leash 00:22:16.089 --> 00:22:17.869 on the general population. And what about the 00:22:17.869 --> 00:22:20.029 trap he mentions regarding money? The trap is 00:22:20.029 --> 00:22:22.049 hoarding the past. People will spend all their 00:22:22.049 --> 00:22:23.710 remaining energy trying to save their dollars, 00:22:23.849 --> 00:22:26.109 their 401ks, their gold. They are desperately 00:22:26.109 --> 00:22:27.809 trying to be the richest person in the graveyard 00:22:27.809 --> 00:22:30.170 of the old world. Brian is practically screaming 00:22:30.170 --> 00:22:33.509 at us through the text. Don't do that. The definition 00:22:33.509 --> 00:22:36.549 of value is shifting to entirely new things. 00:22:36.829 --> 00:22:39.769 Okay. We have looked the monsters squarely in 00:22:39.769 --> 00:22:43.109 the eye. We have seen the riots, the hyperinflation, 00:22:43.210 --> 00:22:45.690 the surveillance state, the dream cults. It is 00:22:45.690 --> 00:22:48.589 honestly a lot to take in. If the source material 00:22:48.589 --> 00:22:51.569 ended right here, I would go crawl under my bed 00:22:51.569 --> 00:22:54.470 and not come out. But this is Reed Multiplex. 00:22:54.970 --> 00:22:57.069 This is Brian Rommel. He doesn't just leave us 00:22:57.069 --> 00:22:59.869 in the dark. He hands us the torch. Section six 00:22:59.869 --> 00:23:02.509 is the core of this whole thing. The cookbook. 00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:05.319 Recipes for the storm. This is exactly why we 00:23:05.319 --> 00:23:07.539 read Brian. He pivots directly to the hero's 00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:10.960 path. The first crucial step is reframing. You 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:12.960 have to look at this approaching chaos not as 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:15.220 a final disaster, but as a forge of renewal. 00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:17.579 You are a raw sword in the fire. The pounding 00:23:17.579 --> 00:23:20.140 hurts, the intense heat burns, but it is actively 00:23:20.140 --> 00:23:22.440 making you sharp. Let's get to the actual recipes, 00:23:22.619 --> 00:23:25.079 the actual things we can do right now in 2026. 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.920 Recipe one is build personal arcs. I absolutely 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:30.490 love this metaphor. The flood is clearly coming. 00:23:30.809 --> 00:23:32.569 Don't stand in the yard yelling at the rain. 00:23:32.690 --> 00:23:36.009 Build a boat. But the boat isn't made of wood. 00:23:36.769 --> 00:23:39.450 It is made of skills. Specifically, the skill 00:23:39.450 --> 00:23:43.069 of symbiosis. Do not try to directly compete 00:23:43.069 --> 00:23:45.630 with AI. Do not try to be a better raw writer 00:23:45.630 --> 00:23:48.509 than GPT -6. You will lose that game. Instead, 00:23:48.609 --> 00:23:51.109 learn to be the master conductor of the AI orchestra. 00:23:51.410 --> 00:23:53.910 Learn advanced prompt engineering. Learn how 00:23:53.910 --> 00:23:56.609 to direct these agentic systems. And diversify 00:23:56.609 --> 00:23:59.529 your life. Yeah. He explicitly talks about investing 00:23:59.529 --> 00:24:02.390 in intangibles. Yes. If the dollar goes to zero 00:24:02.390 --> 00:24:05.190 tomorrow, what do you actually have? You have 00:24:05.190 --> 00:24:07.349 your physical health. You have your deep knowledge. 00:24:07.390 --> 00:24:10.049 You have your ability to grow food. You have 00:24:10.049 --> 00:24:12.410 your real world friendships. Those are the true 00:24:12.410 --> 00:24:15.289 assets that simply cannot be inflated away by 00:24:15.289 --> 00:24:17.430 a central bank. Brian says to invest heavily 00:24:17.430 --> 00:24:19.869 in the things that are real. Recipe two is the 00:24:19.869 --> 00:24:22.549 foresight audit. This is a very practical daily 00:24:22.549 --> 00:24:24.750 habit. This is literally homework for you listening. 00:24:25.150 --> 00:24:27.190 Brian suggests a weekly journaling practice. 00:24:27.529 --> 00:24:29.450 Sit down with a pen and look at the news. Look 00:24:29.450 --> 00:24:31.440 at your local neighborhood. Compare what you 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:34.079 see happening around you to the 28 scenarios 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:36.299 in the piece. Oh, I see a sudden strike at the 00:24:36.299 --> 00:24:38.099 logistics hub. Is that the beginning of scenario 00:24:38.099 --> 00:24:41.660 one? I see a crazy new deepfake scandal swaying 00:24:41.660 --> 00:24:44.740 a local election. Is that scenario three? It 00:24:44.740 --> 00:24:46.740 fundamentally turns you from a panicked victim 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:49.380 into a calm scientist. Instead of panicking, 00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:53.539 you are analyzing data. Uh, I recognize this 00:24:53.539 --> 00:24:56.220 specific monster. I know its moveset. Exactly. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:58.180 It gives you crucial emotional distance. You 00:24:58.180 --> 00:25:00.539 are observing the interregnum, not just drowning 00:25:00.539 --> 00:25:03.380 in it. Recipe three is community and guilds. 00:25:03.380 --> 00:25:05.599 We touched on this earlier, but it is so vital. 00:25:05.819 --> 00:25:07.839 You cannot build an arc alone. You need a trusted 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:11.359 crew. He references part 13 again here. Form 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:14.319 mentor circles. Find five local people you deeply 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:17.460 trust. Your guild. Share physical resources. 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:20.700 share specific knowledge, and most importantly, 00:25:20.740 --> 00:25:23.960 share stories. Brian heavily emphasizes storytelling 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:26.559 as a critical psychological anchor. When the 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:28.940 outside world makes absolutely no sense, sitting 00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:31.180 around telling a shared story about who we are 00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:32.980 and where we are going is what keeps human beings 00:25:32.980 --> 00:25:36.140 sane. And finally, recipe four is stoicism and 00:25:36.140 --> 00:25:39.079 mindset. This is the internal armor. Meditate 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:42.059 on the philosopher Epictetus. Control your response, 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:45.329 not the waves. You cannot stop the federal government 00:25:45.329 --> 00:25:48.450 from rationing bread. You cannot stop the massive 00:25:48.450 --> 00:25:51.630 riot downtown. But you have total control over 00:25:51.630 --> 00:25:54.349 how you start your own morning. Brian strongly 00:25:54.349 --> 00:25:58.329 suggests daily visualization rituals. Wake up, 00:25:58.369 --> 00:26:01.470 sit quietly, and visualize the immense abundance 00:26:01.470 --> 00:26:05.170 of 2035. See the other side of the storm clearly 00:26:05.170 --> 00:26:08.190 in your mind. Keep that specific north star burning 00:26:08.190 --> 00:26:10.549 really bright so you don't get lost in the daily 00:26:10.549 --> 00:26:12.960 fog of panic. And this brings us to the ultimate 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:15.839 role of the hero in Campbell's journey. The hero 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:17.900 doesn't just go get the gold and save himself. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:20.720 He has to return and save the village. Brian 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:24.279 is actively calling on us, the readers, the people 00:26:24.279 --> 00:26:26.579 listening to this deep dive, to step up and be 00:26:26.579 --> 00:26:29.279 mentors. This is a heavy responsibility of being 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:31.079 informed. If you are listening to this, you are 00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:34.039 in the top 1 % of prepared people on the planet. 00:26:34.180 --> 00:26:36.160 Your friends, your family members, your neighbors, 00:26:36.359 --> 00:26:38.380 they are going to be absolutely terrified over 00:26:38.380 --> 00:26:40.059 the next few years. They are going to be deeply 00:26:40.059 --> 00:26:42.579 confused. Buried and genuinely think the world 00:26:42.579 --> 00:26:45.099 is ending. And we have the cookbook. We have 00:26:45.099 --> 00:26:47.619 the cookbook. It is our fundamental job to share 00:26:47.619 --> 00:26:50.279 these recipes with them. Use the reframing exercises 00:26:50.279 --> 00:26:54.180 Brian taught us. Be the one calm, steady voice 00:26:54.180 --> 00:26:55.819 in the room. When everyone else is screaming 00:26:55.819 --> 00:26:57.619 that we are cook, you are the one standing up 00:26:57.619 --> 00:26:59.099 and saying, no, these are just raw ingredients. 00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:01.380 Let's make something new together. That is so 00:27:01.380 --> 00:27:04.940 powerful. Chaos is the forge of renewal. That 00:27:04.940 --> 00:27:07.299 is the core alchemical truth Brian leaves us 00:27:07.299 --> 00:27:10.519 with at the end of part 14. It is the long game. 00:27:10.859 --> 00:27:13.980 2032 to 2038. That is the target window. The 00:27:13.980 --> 00:27:16.759 storm does break eventually. Brian promises us 00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:19.440 that based on the cycles of history. And when 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:22.240 it finally breaks, we are looking at an era of 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:24.980 human flourishing and abundance that we can barely 00:27:24.980 --> 00:27:27.859 even imagine right now. We just have to successfully 00:27:27.859 --> 00:27:31.029 surf the giant waves to get to that shore. Surf 00:27:31.029 --> 00:27:32.750 the waves, don't fight them. I think that is 00:27:32.750 --> 00:27:34.890 absolutely going to be my personal mantra for 00:27:34.890 --> 00:27:37.450 all of 2026. It's really the only way forward. 00:27:37.670 --> 00:27:39.730 I just want to take a quick second here to appreciate 00:27:39.730 --> 00:27:42.430 the sheer scope of the work Brian is doing with 00:27:42.430 --> 00:27:45.990 this 5 ,000 Days series. Seriously. In a media 00:27:45.990 --> 00:27:48.529 world just full of cheap hot takes and endless 00:27:48.529 --> 00:27:51.490 fear -mongering for plics, Read Multiplex really 00:27:51.490 --> 00:27:53.670 is acting as a true shelter in the storm. It 00:27:53.670 --> 00:27:55.569 feels incredibly good to know there is a guide 00:27:55.569 --> 00:27:59.230 out there who sees the very real monsters, names 00:27:59.230 --> 00:28:02.049 them out loud, and then hands you a sword. Absolutely. 00:28:02.109 --> 00:28:04.569 We are very lucky to have the map. Now we just 00:28:04.569 --> 00:28:06.789 have to actually walk the path. So here is the 00:28:06.789 --> 00:28:09.390 final thought for you to chew on as you go about 00:28:09.390 --> 00:28:12.309 your week in this wild world. We've shown you 00:28:12.309 --> 00:28:14.589 the map today. We've pointed out where the monsters 00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:17.450 live. The waves are getting demonstrably higher 00:28:17.450 --> 00:28:20.410 every single month. Brian asks you one very direct 00:28:20.410 --> 00:28:23.430 question. What wave will you ride? And to build 00:28:23.430 --> 00:28:25.160 on that... Something to think about for yourself. 00:28:25.460 --> 00:28:28.599 In a future world where AI is completely flawless, 00:28:28.779 --> 00:28:31.180 where machines don't make mistakes, maybe your 00:28:31.180 --> 00:28:33.960 specific unique human flaws, your quirks, your 00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:36.779 weird artisan hobbies, maybe those are exactly 00:28:36.779 --> 00:28:38.700 the traits that will make you incredibly valuable. 00:28:38.980 --> 00:28:42.359 Your humanity is your greatest asset. Deep Dive, 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:44.859 signing off. Stay safe and stay sharp out there.