In every era, there have been people who never got to use what they had. Not because they lacked ability, but because the circuits connecting their abilities to society differed from one age to the next. You could call it luck, or adaptability. But neither word captures the full complexity.
There was a time when physical strength sat at the center of value. A strong body translated directly into survival and results. When civilization and science advanced far enough that social systems no longer depended on brute force, those without it found room to contribute. This was not merely technological progress. It was the moment society rewrote its definition of power.
The same pattern appears in the realm of expression. Throughout history, countless people possessed rich artistic talent but had no way to reach an audience. When digital spaces emerged and the cost of broadcasting dropped dramatically, talent that would have stayed buried became visible. Language barriers tell a similar story. No matter how exceptional someone’s expertise in a given field, without the words to convey it, that expertise might as well not have existed.
The evolution of civilization is, in part, a history of multiplying the circuits that connect buried talent to society. The printing press democratized the spread of ideas. The internet dismantled the monopoly on broadcasting. Each time a new technology appeared, a circuit that had been closed for someone, somewhere, opened. Seen this way, the current moment, with AI agents weaving themselves into daily life, looks like the opening of yet another kind of circuit.
People who could only operate alone. People profoundly uncomfortable with external communication. People whose expertise was confined to an impossibly narrow domain. In the social structures we have known, these traits were treated as weaknesses. Working in an organization required cooperation. Producing results presupposed collaboration with others. But as AI agents step into the intermediary role, that very premise is shifting. When the burden of interpersonal interaction is lifted, the focus and expertise inside a person can convert directly into productivity. It is even possible that those categorized as shut-ins or NEETs are, from a different angle, the personality type most suited to this era.
Looking back at my own experience, the past six months have been distinctly different from everything before. Even alone, with the help of AI agents, I can sustain the productive capacity of a small organization. Research, documentation, code implementation, translation, strategy sparring. Roles that once required separate people can now run under a single person’s judgment. Link those small units together through further division of labor, and they can grow into a mid-sized organizational body. The ceiling on individual productivity has shifted beyond anything previously imaginable.
Of course, there are parts that demand caution. Whether what we are calling productivity is worth its cost remains impossible to judge at this point. Just as in the early days of the internet and the dot-com bubble, we have yet to accurately grasp the true cost structure behind the productivity we feel. And there is still the question of what that productivity is directed toward. Creating things, refining ideas, exercising power for whom and to what end. When individual productivity rises dramatically, where that power is aimed falls to the individual. That is freedom, and at the same time, a quiet responsibility.
Still, much as Steve Jobs once called the computer a bicycle for the mind, there is a palpable sense of being in the middle of a moment when individual capability is being expanded. What happens when circuits that were closed begin to open is something no one can yet know.