Disentanglement Over Acceleration
Artificial intelligence becomes dangerous the moment it is used to accelerate what already exists.
Acceleration means doing the same things faster. If a system is fragile, unjust, or shortsighted, AI will not fix it — it will amplify it, efficiently and at scale.
The real value of AI lies elsewhere.
Not in speed. But in disentanglement.
What Does It Mean to Disentangle?
To disentangle is to clarify what has become confused over time:
- to reveal hidden dependencies
- to separate physical constraints from political choices
- to distinguish necessity from habit
- to expose where decisions are blocked by lack of information, by conflicts of interest, or by inertia
In this role, AI does not command. It illuminates.
Three Simple Tests
An AI system is legitimate only if it passes these tests:
1. Does it reduce the number of human decisions required?
Or does it force more decisions, faster, under pressure?
2. Does it make the system understandable to those who live within it?
If not, it does not harmonize — it dominates.
3. Does it act on slow, structural flows — time, resources, access —
Or on fast, emotional ones: attention, reaction, compulsion?
The second case is almost always toxic.
Why This Matters
Most technological failures are not technical. They are failures of framing.
We optimize what should have been questioned. We accelerate what should have been simplified. We automate what should have been disentangled.
AI should not be used to push systems harder. It should be used to make systems legible.
Applied to Year Zero Change
A new calendar or a new currency has value only if it reduces cognitive and moral complexity.
Not if it adds an ideological layer. Not if it introduces technical opacity.
If AI has a role here, it is a modest but radical one:
To state clearly what is truly scarce.
What is no longer scarce.
And what can be shared without conflict.
When AI disentangles, it vitalizes. When it merely optimizes metrics, it exhausts.
*This post is from a discussion with ChatGPT
Rareté et obsolescence programmée sont l’une des sources des souffrances. Elles produisent inégalités et conflits en empêchant les consciences d’évoluer dans un cercle vicieux qui pourrait ne pas avoir de prise sur l’IA.
C’est la raison de mon optimisme.