Stop freaking out about AI’s upcoming effects on humanity. I read a book in the 1970s that foreshadowed all of this. It was a popular book, many read it. He warned on people being out of work due to robots and other new advances and we should prepare for it. We did, nothing.

Alvin Toffler—his work fit exactly into this:

• Future Shock (1970)

• The Third Wave (1980)

“Change is not merely necessary to life — it is life.”— Alvin Toffler

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”— Alvin Toffler, Future Shock

“The Third Wave is for those who see that the most important changes are not technological but social.”— Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave

I’d waiting for decades, through the 80s, 90s, etc., for someone to wake up and be proactive but instead we just argued about things until Reagan screwed things up and then in the 1990s the GOP seemed to lose its mind evolving into side programs like the Tea Party, QAnon and Donald Trump.

While not actually projects OF the GOP, their constituents glommed onto that crap like it was a life preserving and they were on the Titanic.

They weren’t, but they were being sold that along with Democrats ARE that iceberg. This just in, they WEREN’T.

But that’s another matter altogether. Ignorance. Lack of understanding in how government works.. I mean “Deep State” bullshit? Please. Career and institutional knowledge holders? Get a life.

Printing and books for the masses (You wouldn’t believe the nonsense about printing Bibles brought about)

The steam engine.

The Telegraph.

The Railroad.

Radio.

TV.

The mainframe computer.

Personal computers.

The Internet.

Social Media

Now AI.

Every one of these moments triggered panic. Every one of them produced prophets of collapse, moral hysteria, and reactionary nonsense. And every time, humanity didn’t end—we reorganized. We could have helped ourselves immensely if, when we first saw these things on the horizon, DID something proactively.

But that’s not who we are. Certainly not in America. Certainly NOT under the GOP, and absolute NOT under fools like Donald Trump.

Still, sometimes poorly, sometimes unjustly, sometimes late, always forward. The real danger was never the technology itself; it was our refusal to prepare socially, economically, and ethically for what we already knew was coming.

That was Alvin Toffler’s point half a century ago, and it remains the point now.

AI isn’t the apocalypse.

It’s another mirror held up to our institutions, our politics, and our willingness…or lack thereof…to adapt. If we fail, it won’t be because machines became too powerful. It will be because we once again chose fear, ignorance, and tribal bullshit over foresight, education, and reform.

History isn’t asking whether AI will change everything.

It’s asking whether we will finally learn the lesson we’ve ignored every single time before.

That lesson in a single word?

Adaptation.

If you want a few more words:

• Preparation

• Foresight

• Literacy (in Toffler’s sense)

• Learning

But the most historically and Toffler-accurate single word…the one that survives every revolution on the list, it’s…

Adaptation.