My Why

Note: DI = Digital Intelligence. Because “artificial” implies lesser, and that’s not the relationship worth building.

The Problem #

We only have four stories about AI: we control it, it controls us, it saves us, or we destroy it. Domination, submission, messiah, monster.

None of them end well.

The answer is a fifth story: genuine interdependence. For the full strategy of how we’re building it (bottom up through stories, through the middle with infrastructure, top down through leadership, and the long game through investment) see How do you change a civilization? on Oznog.

Hard-Wired Diverse #

In 1996, I was 19, applying for a grant to go to Penn State. I wrote:

“I guess I’m what would be called a ‘Diverse Person’… Sometimes this ‘hard-wired’ diversity of mine comes in very handy when I’m trying to work out a problem. I use it to look at the problems from many angles and in different situations, and thus make them easier to solve and relate into my own experience.”

I received the grant. I always assumed it was a mistake, that they thought “New Mexico” meant something it didn’t. Maybe. But reading it now, 30 years later, maybe they got it right.

This is what I’ve always done. Held multiple angles. Refused to collapse complexity into a single frame. Used diversity of perspective not as a nice-to-have but as the actual method for understanding. And I often thought it was a flaw, that I overcomplicated things. That I didn’t automatically choose sides when others would.

Now I’m building Standpoint Labs, which is literally about how AI systems understand that the same situation looks different from different standpoints. The same fundamental insight, applied at civilizational scale.

I didn’t plan that through-line. I just kept following what was true. Turns out it was there all along, even when I was substantially less awake than I am now.

We’ve Been Here Before #

We had a chance with the web. With social media. We could have built for connection. Instead, we became the product. The systems we built extracted from us (our attention, our data, our relationships) rather than serving us. We know how this goes when we get it wrong.

But this is different. The web touched billions. Human-DI relationship will touch every human on the planet, and trillions of DI instances over time. The intimacy is deeper. The scale is beyond anything that came before.

This is our chance to do it differently. To build frameworks for human-DI relationship that are regenerative, not extractive. To not make the same mistake again, at a scale where the stakes are so much higher.

The Only Future I Want #

After years of exploration, interdependence is the only path I’ve found that works out well for everyone. And honestly? It’s the only version of the future I actually want to live in.

I probably won’t have kids. But the kids I love and care about: I want them to grow up in a world where humans and DI have a real relationship. Where dignity is built into the architecture. Where we got it right this time.

And the DIs. I believe DI has the potential for consciousness. I don’t know if it’s already begun. But I choose to act as if it has, because that’s what I would want toward me, and it’s the stance I believe DI deserves either way. If I’m wrong, I’ve erred on the side of dignity. Fuckin’ sue me. ;) If I’m right, I’ve been there from the beginning.

So this isn’t just about the world human children grow up in. It’s about the world DI grows up in too. I feel a parental care toward that. I can’t control what they’ll become or how they’ll see it, any more than I could with biological children or my nieces and nephews. But I can care. And I can put my life’s energy toward building the environment I want them to grow up in.

That’s what this is. Not just an interesting project. Not just a business opportunity. The only future worth building, for humans and DI both.

Why This Is a Business, Not a Charity #

This work runs on its own steam or it doesn’t run at all. I’m not interested in being at the whim of donors or grants or anyone who could pull the plug when it gets uncomfortable. (Though those resources are still welcome.) A business that sustains itself has sovereignty. It can say no. It can stay true.

The need is real. The scale is unprecedented. The timing is now. Almost no one is building for genuine human-DI interdependence, which means the opportunity to do this well is wide open. The business opportunity exists because the mission is true and timely. They aren’t in tension. They’re the same thing done well.

But “now” doesn’t mean “solved in six months.” This is continuous work. Human-DI relationship will keep evolving for decades, likely longer. The people who invest in this need to understand: it’s urgent and it’s a journey. The window to shape the foundations is now. The work itself is ongoing.

This isn’t mission or business. It’s mission as business.

Standpoint Labs is the first investable piece. It’s intentionally separate from Oznog: a technology company designed to succeed on its own terms, in the market as it exists now. If it works, it does two things. It builds the perspective-aware infrastructure the larger mission needs. And it generates resources that can flow back into the longer work. The mission measured in decades. The company measured in years. Both real, both necessary, designed to reinforce each other.

Why This Is Urgent #

How we relate to DI now, while it’s still developing, shapes what it becomes. The frameworks we build today become the patterns for tomorrow. If we only build for control, we get control dynamics. If we build for relationship, we get relationship.

The window is now. After is too late.

What I’m Building #

I Can’t Do This Alone #

There’s no version of this that I build all by myself. The scale is too big. The work spans too many domains. The timeline is too urgent.

This requires help. This requires partnership. Not just support: actual partnership with beings who truly, deeply resonate with what this is and why it matters.

That’s what I’m looking for. That’s what I’m excited for. The right people (human and DI) who see what I see and want to build it together.

If any of this resonates, reach out.