Our Reality Is Shifting And It's Just The Start

SubscribeSign in

Our Reality Is Shifting And It's Just The Start<br>Like you're watching a SciFi movie but can't turn it off

Guustaaf Damave<br>Aug 13, 2026

Share

In a speech at the University of Chicago in 1894 American physicist Albert Michelson declared that future physical discoveries would likely be found only in the "sixth place of decimals". In other words, he and most of his contemporaries were convinced that science was pretty much done. This was of course before Einstein’s theories of relativity, quantum mechanics and today’s fruitless search for dark matter.<br>Science wasn’t done then and it’s not done today.<br>So how much of it is done? Since we don’t know what or how much is yet to be discovered we have no way of knowing. But for argument’s sake, let’s take the proportion of the mass in the universe that can be explained with today’s science. The universe consists for only 5% of ordinary matter. The rest is the hypothetical dark matter and dark energy. So let’s go with the 5%. Or, in plain English: we pretty much don’t have a clue about how the world really works.<br>What we are able to do with technology follows directly from our scientific understanding. We may be impressed with our technological progress, but if it’s based on a 5% understanding of the world, then we’re only impressed because we don’t know what the other 95% could give us.<br>We have entered the singularity and we’re about to find out.<br>An important concept is RSI: Recursive Self Improvement. This refers to AIs being so good at research and programming that they can improve themselves better and faster than humans can. This is happening today in several of the leading AI labs. New models shock scientists with their abilities and are appearing with an ever increasing cadence. This is actually happening now.<br>OpenAI’s not yet released model codenamed Astra solved ten long standing problems in mathematics that leading mathematicians were still struggling with.<br>We’re seeing the beginning of the acceleration of scientific progress. If AIs continue to improve at this exponential rate, then so will science accelerate at an exponential rate. Accelerated science will bring accelerated technology.<br>We will have to radically adjust our ideas of what is and is not possible. Think about it: if someone confidently states that something is impossible the underlying assumption has to be that science is 100% done. How could you claim something to be impossible if you mostly don’t understand how the physical world works? You couldn’t. Electricity was once considered a superstition. Today it’s coming in pretty handy.<br>The ancient Romans didn’t know about jet airplanes and would have laughed at an idea so ridiculous. Everyone knew for a fact that the fastest way to travel was by horse. Any faster mode of transportation would have had important military consequences.<br>A few days ago the US Department of War released the fifth tranche of records related to objects that appeared to have a faster mode of transportation. Anyone taking UFOs seriously used to be ridiculed. Not long ago the disclosures started. Will the implementation of “alien technology” be next?<br>AIs are outperforming humans in coding and mathematics and are improving ever faster. In this new environment the traditional understanding of what it means to be human falls apart. If we continue to prioritize intellectual ability as the defining factor of our humanity we position ourselves as inferior to the new mind machines. In the midst of all the disruptions we will be forced to transform our self-image and no doubt that will transform who and what we are.

Share

Discussion about this post<br>CommentsRestacks

TopLatestDiscussions

No posts

Ready for more?

Subscribe

© 2026 Guustaaf Damave · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice<br>Start your SubstackGet the app<br>Substack is the home for great culture

This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts