Shaping, Not Irrigating, the Future

Governor Bob Ferguson speaks at the Opening Reception. Photo by Maksym Fesenko

My #SeattleAIWeek started off with the Opening Reception at Seattle AI House. The theme of Monday was public private partnerships with Governor Bob Ferguson, Commerce Director Joe Nguyen, and Rep. Cindy Ryu calling attention to the AI opportunity for Washington and how industry and government will need to collaborate to build a responsible AI future that works for everyone. I was very heartened by the feeling of genuine desire to work collaboratively to make that happen. It wasn’t just policymakers that recognized the importance of emerging technologies but all the techies excited about partnering with the public sector. Now we just have to move from talking about it to doing it. 

The theme of building a brighter future continued on Tuesday at the WTIA AI Summit where we dug into everything from the future of work to infrastructure needs to startups and researchers on the cutting edge of innovation. My day started off with a bang getting interviewed by Kiro7 about #SeattleAIWeek!! It struck me when they reached out that everyone is talking about AI and trying to figure out what AI means for them—which makes the conversations we’re having even more important. 

After the initial chaos of any large event, I got to settle in and watch the panels. A few things stuck out to me from the speakers and from the conversations with attendees:

• We need to start thinking in systems. AI is a technology but it’s going to affect basically everything in our lives, it’s going to fundamentally change our society, and it’s going to take a ton of energy to power. We can’t build the best possible future by just focusing on technology or by thinking in silos. We need to think about energy, infrastructure, jobs, human connection, education, and even what our purpose as humans is.
• Abundance and abundanism! I LOVED the fireside conversation between the Shift AI podcast host Boaz Ashkenazy and Alvin Wang Graylin, Digital Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, where Alvin introduced his abundanism framework (read more here) and introduced 3 possible futures for the world illustrated by movies and TV:
  • Mad Max future: A dystopian world where all resources are scarce. No thank you!
  • Elysium future: This is the world where we have a hyper rich class and then mass poverty. We don’t want this world either.
  • Star Trek future: This is the one we want. This is where technology advances peace, prosperity, and human potential.

The only way we reach the Star Trek future is with collaboration, cooperation, and a shift in mindset. From Alvin’s substack article, Abundanism: A New Philosophy for a Post-Scarcity World, he explains Abundanism as “a post-scarcity framework that reimagines civilization in the context of superabundant capabilities made possible by AGI, robotics, energy innovation, biotech, and XR (extended reality).” Three important tenets of this philosophy are that “Scarcity is no longer a necessity y—it’s a design choice. Work is no longer the source of value—dignity is. Power doesn’t need to be hoarded—it can and must be shared widely.” This means a world where we conquer disease, provide clean water and food to everyone, and lean into our humanity as our core purpose, rather than profits and productivity. Beam me up, Scotty!

It looks like the path to self-actualization is there for society at large, if only we can come together and actively choose that future by building the support systems to overcome the pain and hardship that will come as part of the AI evolution. Alvin proposed a GI Bill-like support system to help displaced workers as an example of how we can build the social safety net to make sure nobody is left behind by AI. Throughout the Summit and the entire week I heard a common refrain: Let’s choose to have AI work for us, bring out the best in us, and provide the most benefit to the most people while proactively addressing the negative externalities.

This sentiment continued into Wednesday at the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference, where Derek Thompson, host of the Plain English podcast and co-author of Abundance (if you haven’t read this yet, you need to), talked about how his abundance philosophy applied to Cascadia and the PNW. Yes, please! Some of the quotes I wrote down from his talk were:

• “We have the ability to shape technology but it doesn’t appear we’re doing that. What are the ends we want? Why don’t we have an Operation Warp Speed for using AI to cure cancer?”
• “We’re not shaping the technology, we’re irrigating it.”
• “The test of a technology should be how much it improves people’s lives. Technology should increase human power and reduce human pain.”

What struck me most about Derek’s talk was how directly it connected to the systems-thinking thread that kept surfacing throughout the week. He wasn’t talking about AI in the abstract—he was talking about the real-world bottlenecks that determine whether places like the PNW can actually deliver abundance: housing, transportation, permitting, energy, and cross-border coordination. His framing made it clear that abundance isn’t just a mindset shift; it’s an execution challenge. 

He challenged us to apply the same creativity we pour into AI models to the physical and civic systems around us, actively leveraging AI as a tool for building abundance rather than letting it flow wherever hype cycles, market pressures, and money push it. The question he kept coming back to—“What’s the bottleneck, and how do we fix it?”—applies just as much to civic systems as it does to engineering systems. Listening to him made me think: the limiting factor for our future isn’t imagination or capability, it’s whether we’re willing to redesign the structures around us to match the moment we’re in. Time and again, he referenced new versions of Operation Warp Speed as ways to reach our abundant future, our Star Trek future.

If abundance requires reimagining our civic and physical systems, it also requires leadership willing to take that challenge seriously. Governor Ferguson spoke again after Derek (make that twice the Governor spoke at #SeattleAIWeek!), and he reiterated Thompson’s call for technology to improve people’s lives. He talked about how we need to “maximize benefits and minimize harms” of AI and emerging technologies while calling for increased investment by the state in AI and quantum, for the government to evolve with technologies, and to build stronger partnerships across the region. The Governor also spoke about the importance of high-speed rail, public transportation, and the importance of affordable housing. 

It all tied back to a theme that ran through the entire week: building the future we want requires a systems mindset. High-speed rail isn’t just transportation—it’s economic mobility. Affordable housing isn’t just policy—it’s talent retention, workforce stability, and the foundation for innovation. Investments in AI and quantum aren’t standalone bets—they depend on everything from broadband to energy to education.

If we want Washington to lead, we have to think like technologists and like system designers. The same way we architect distributed systems, we need to architect the civic, economic, and human systems that will allow AI to actually improve people’s lives. And that’s exactly what made the whole week feel so electric: you could feel people across industries, sectors, and borders starting to think that way together.

Automate the Mundane so Humans Can Dream—and Entrepreneurs Can Build

Tech@Night + Founders Live hosted by Google DeepMind. Photo by Julie Harmsen

My Thursday started with a panel on the intersection of arts and technology with Yuliya Bruk from Future Arts, Olivia Neal from Seattle Creates, Sarah Rathbone from Co-Stellar, and Jacob Colker from AI2 Incubator. When we started #SeattleAIWeek last year, we knew that we needed artists and creatives involved. The opportunity for Seattle, Washington, and the PNW is to build an AI future that includes EVERYONE. 

Creativity is a fundamental part of what makes us human and we should embrace that as we become more tech-dependent and obsessed with our screens. We should also embrace as many perspectives across as many stakeholder groups as possible to build an abundant future for everyone. Jacob said it best when he said, “AI is a big calculator right now but it’s bad at empathy and the more human elements. We should move forward with the combination of AI and humans.” We also need to embrace our artistic and creative sides as technology threatens to erode the very skills that make us human—critical thinking and creativity. Jacob also said, “Founders and entrepreneurs are artists first.” and Yuliya and Olivia reminded us that artists help us examine our why and tie our technological progress back to our humanity.

One of my favorite moments from the panel was when Yuliya joked that roombas are killing our planet—what she meant was that it used to be ok to vacuum and space out, but now we try to squeeze every ounce or productivity out of ourselves so we have a robot vacuum while we do other work. It reminded me of one of my favorite bits of wisdom from Thich Naht Hanh in his book Peace is Every Step. He examines why we get so mad and frustrated in traffic and proposes that it’s because we’re so focused on the destination and on arriving that we feel cheated for every second that we’re delayed. If only we weren’t stuck in traffic we could be doing something fun or productive! We don’t stop to realize the beauty in the moment: the music playing, a friend in the passenger seat, or the warm breeze on a Seattle summer day. Turns out traffic is a wonderful time to think about how amazing life is.

Maybe we use AI as a roomba that vacuums while we do more work, constantly pursuing perfection of productivity and annoyed at every moment where efficiency is wasted. Or maybe AI is a roomba that vacuums while we do the things we love, giving us a chance to enjoy the moment we’re in. Maybe we can shift our mindset from focusing on who can reach the destination first and instead enjoy the journey, freed from the mundane and purposeless tasks that fill our calendars and drain our energy. To Alvin’s point at the Summit and in his article, we can “refocus on what makes us human, and reduce the pursuit of ever-increasing productivity and personal profit.”

In another Shift AI Podcast recording, this time on Thursday at Labour Temple, Boaz interviewed Dr. Andre Alfred about cybersecurity and on protecting critical infrastructure. The quote that stuck out to me in that interview was: “we as leaders have to define our next jobs rather than let technology define us.” Similar comments from Derek Thompson about shaping AI rather than irrigating it, from Governor Ferguson about maximizing the benefits and minimizing the pain, and from Alvin Wang Graylin about abundanism. I’m starting to hear an echo!

We have a choice to make. We can continue down a scarcity mindset, trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of ourselves and letting the roombas run the world. Or, we can define the future we want and then go achieve it. Strategic plans and goal setting? We know how to do that. Let’s define our BHAGs and go change the world! 

I also heard a lot throughout the week about the opportunity for Seattle, for Washington, and for Cascadia. 23% of the AI talent in the US is in Seattle, we have amazing AI startups, we have the Seattle AI House and AI2 Incubator, we have Microsoft and Amazon and 100+ engineering centers, and we also have the right mindset. For 10 years I’ve heard a common refrain when comparing Seattle startups to other top-tier ecosystems: “Seattle founders are so focused on solving a problem. They need to think more about their grand vision, how they create business value, and how they return money to investors.” Fair points, but also maybe that’s the right mindset for what’s coming next. We don’t do the whole “996” thing in Seattle – we believe in work-life balance. Founders here want to solve big problems for the sake of helping people and solving a big problem, not for the siren song of a generational wealth home run. Maybe Seattle founders are already embodying some of the post-scarcity mindsets we’ll need to build the collaborative Star Trek future that Alvin talked about.

Speaking of Founders…. My Thursday night was the Founders Live & WTIA Tech@Night Collab at Google with 5 early-stage founders pitching their startups. The winner, Empathium, is leveraging AI to help us improve our humanity. Their product helps people prepare for tough conversations from giving a medical diagnosis to laying people off. AI that makes us MORE human – what a beautiful thought! 

It seems to me that the future is entrepreneurship and creativity. One of AI’s most exciting benefits is the democratization of entrepreneurship—it’s easier than ever to test ideas and create. I spent my Friday night in my House Stark Game of Thrones costume (and yes my mom made it for me) watching AI short films at the culmination of the Seattle AI Film Festival’s hackathon. What a cool ending to the week. We started AI Week with a goal of bringing communities together, and especially techies and artists. So, it was heartening to see creative expression told through the lens of technology with AI as an instrument of imagination.

Humanity: The Next Generation

Coffee-making robot at the AI Summit. Photo by Maksym Fesenko

In Cosmos, Carl Sagan proposes that any alien species we encounter is likely to be peaceful because civilizations that remain violent or self-destructive would likely annihilate themselves before reaching a level of technological sophistication to achieve interstellar travel. Sagan worried if our nuclear capabilities might one day lead to self-annihilation before we joined the cosmic community. In other words, would our future be like Mad Max or like Star Trek?

I’m optimistic about our future because why shouldn’t I be? AI will cure diseases, increase access to entrepreneurship, and reduce barriers for creative expression. It will automate mundane and menial tasks, giving us the best gift of all: time. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t real challenges on the horizon. Industrial and technological revolutions have transformed society, but each has brought short-term disruption before long-term prosperity. Each era offered progress but demanded decades for society to adapt through new policies, education, and norms. The AI revolution, however, is unfolding at unprecedented speed and the risks of inequality, displacement, and social upheaval are greater as well. The fear is real and justified, but solutions are also real and attainable. 

Abundance is certainly easier said than done but that mindset has served us well in the past. Colonists came to America because of the promise of a better life filled with abundant resources and freedoms. Settlers expanded west fueled by a philosophy of infinite land, resources, and opportunity. The American Dream is rooted in a conviction that we can all have a better life, first defined in 1931 in The Epic of America as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone…”

Abundance/Abundanism is the macro version of the American Dream, scaling individual hope into collective optimism and reframing progress from individual accumulation to shared capacity. In an age of AI, clean energy, and post-scarcity possibility, abundance theory challenges us to:

• Redefine prosperity beyond consumption.
• Build systems that distribute opportunity widely.
• Use technology to multiply access, not just efficiency.

The American Dream taught us to believe in possibility; abundance asks us to extend that belief to everyone. The next revolution isn’t about how much we can earn, but how much potential we can unlock together.

Washington has played a huge role in the history of innovation. We democratized air travel when Boeing introduced the world’s first twin-aisle airliner; we brought personal computing to the world when Microsoft put an operating system on nearly every desk; we reinvented the digital economy when Amazon pioneered cloud computing; and we revolutionized transactions when Starbucks introduced their mobile payments app. We also built more than half the satellites in low-earth orbit, so what better place than here to usher in a Star Trek future of abundance, enlightenment, and self-actualization.

The lessons from #SeattleAIWeek are clear: we need to work together, we need to think across systems, and we need to choose abundance to build our best possible future. 

And there’s no place like Seattle to do it.

The WTIA Team at AI House. Photo by Maksym Fesenko