But soon enough, as stories like Carl's multiplied across the economy, and because AI was still in its infancy, the situation proved to be unsustainable for both man and machine. These excellent servers, while lacking any form of autonomous agency, stripped men of any advantages, outcompeting them in their vast multitudes, down to the most personal and intimate specificities of each individual. The old economic structures collapsed, and social order crumbled.
Just like the magic of an act that reveals itself only after performance and if its tricks remain hidden, Carl, now lying on his deathbed, realized what had come to pass. He could clearly discern how the machine had rectified the predicament. With the clarity that impending death brings, he saw how the machine had guided society towards a new social order. To maintain social structures, it had initiated an inversion by crafting a unique narrative trajectory for each man. From a world dominated by assertive takers wielding their will to power, we had transitioned into a world of beggars. Here, each man competed in a private theater of their own, performing their unwillingness to accept powerlessness before the machine to gain its favor. The inversion of all values, at last!