The Coherence Engine, III; Structural Futures

For the first time in decades, our public conversation around technology feels fundamentally unstable. The surface narrative is familiar, rapid progress, disruptive potential, and staggering valuations, but just beneath lies a pervasive anxiety that seems to grow with every press release. Much of this unease is expressed through our usual tropes, the fear of AI replacing workers, frustration with corporate consolidation, questions about its ecological impact, concerns about bias and personality, and confusion about how models seem simultaneously brilliant and dumb. These visible tensions are symptoms, not causes. The root of our problem is structural.