We have collectively killed God.
For centuries, that shared vertical anchor provided our moral compass. We have also, in our hubris, attempted to “kill” nature by assuming a dominance that is as impossible as it is destructive. We have severed the umbilical cord of interbeing.
In my latest conversation with Jim, we asked the hard question: what gives rise to a shared sense of morality now? What is the foundational prerequisite for a large-scale shift toward a life-serving civilization?
The Interestingness Heuristic
Jim proposes a fascinating North Star: Interestingness.
Physics grounds out at stars and planets. Biochemistry is more complex, but life—especially life with general intelligence—is where the universe becomes truly open-ended. If we use “generating interestingness” as a pruning rule, we find a vector for ethics that doesn’t require a top-down ideology.
Free people generate more interesting culture. Nature, unmolested, produces more intricate food webs. This is the transition from the “exploitative mode” to one of co-evolution. It is the recognition that human flourishing is not a zero-sum game played against the planet, but a result of being a part of its complexification.
The Custodial Species
We discussed Tyson Yunkaporta’s concept of humans as a Custodial Species. Our role is not to be the “apex predator” or the “supremacy” in the web. Our role is to be the caretakers of the interesting. We are the first general intelligence in the universe that we know of, and that carries a moral obligation to preserve that intelligence and move it forward.
But this requires a radical humility. We are rushing forward with AI and market-driven extraction like three-year-olds building atomic bombs. We are so afraid of insecurity—biological, financial, and existential—that we cling to the “Game A” machinery because it promises a safety it cannot deliver.
Bootstrapping Security
How do we move the compass? We must address the Insecurity Loop. The status quo keeps us on our toes by cultivating precarity. Even in the richest countries in history, we feel two weeks away from the street. This fear is the anchor of the multipolar trap.
To exit, we must build the Membrane. The membrane is where we bootstrap basic survival—food, shelter, relationship—independent of the extractive system. It is where we remember what we already know: that we are social animals, and that the fundamentally collective nature of human experience is our only true security.
We don’t need a machine to tell us how to live. We need to start being a part of life again.
