Jansen once said:
The age of designing programs, writing code, and brute-forcing our way through problems is ending. What comes next is the age of sharing problems and generating solutions.
Generative AI creates things. Text. Images. Code.
And lately, I’ve come to feel that this general-purpose ability means it will eventually create infrastructure itself.
Until now, we’ve followed a roughly linear cycle:
- Humans design and operate the structure of cities and societies
- The resulting industries develop hardware and software
- Data is collected and funneled into systems
- Protocols, laws, and economic structures are established
- And finally, AI is deployed
But from now on, we’ll enter a new cycle led by AI. And at that point, step one may already be beyond the reach of human cognition. AI will generate cities in the mirror world—or in other virtual spaces—and test various models of social design.
It will simulate tax systems, transport networks, education and financial policies. And perhaps, ideally, the solutions that most broadly benefit the public good will be selected and implemented.
That future is already close at hand. We’re entering an age where AI designs semiconductors. An age where AI creates robots in the mirror world. And beyond that, perhaps an age where AI generates entire societal structures.
The word “generative” often carries connotations of improvisation or chaos. But in truth, generative AI excels at inventing structure. Just as in nature, where apparent disorder gives way to patterns when seen from a distance. The output of AI may seem arbitrary, but from a high enough view, a kind of logic will likely emerge.
Whether humans can perceive it is another question. If such technologies and the systems to adopt them are introduced into governance, then a different kind of policymaking becomes possible. This won’t be about whether data exists or not. It won’t be about evidence-based metrics. It will be a society where outcomes are implemented because they’ve been verified.
When that time comes, the rules of the game will have changed. And the shape of democracy may no longer remain the same.
Building cities. Designing institutions. Engineering infrastructure. These were once seen as things only humans could do. But a time is coming when those things will be implemented because AI has tested them, and the outcomes were simply better—higher quality, more effective, more just.
What, then, will be the measure of truth? Of maximum happiness? Of the best possible result? And who, if anyone, will be left to decide?