The #OMN path is about the stories we tell to make technology acceptable

The #OMN path is about the stories we tell to make technology acceptable, the institutions that repeat those stories, and the grassroots work left waiting while the money follows the next “miracle” story. A useful tool gets wrapped in a grand narrative, funding follows the narrative rather than community need, and the people building alternatives are pushed to the margins. When the story finally weakens, the underlying technology may remain – but the promised social transformation never arrives. The story is always bigger than the technology, and when the story collapses, the people trying to build something useful are left to compost the mess. The AI hype is beginning to meet this reality that caught up with so many previous waves of technology. The promises were enormous: artificial general intelligence, automated abundance, the end of work as we know it, and machines that would solve the problems we have failed to solve ourselves. Trillions in investment followed the story. But…