As AI accelerates the polycrisis—climate collapse, economic precarity, and institutional decay—humanity’s survival hinges on a single imperative (and one of my favourite lines from Gladiator): “Whatever comes out of these gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together.”
To heed Maximus’s call, we must leapfrog to Horizon 3, building regenerative systems now that bypass crumbling institutions. This isn’t left or right, old or young, urban or rural. It rejects both utopian perfection and dystopian surrender, demanding instead pragmatic radicalism—using AI’s cognitive abundance to empower human creativity, while hardening against exploitative systems before they calcify into algorithmic authoritarianism.
Our task is not merely to endure, but to ensure what emerges reflects humanity’s highest potential, not its worst instincts.
The Gates of the Polycrisis
AI is not a standalone challenge but a crisis multiplier:
- Automated Evictions: Algorithms evict tenants faster than human landlords ever could.
- Generative Chaos: AI floods courts with synthetic lawsuits, overwhelming brittle legal systems.
- Climate Contradiction: Training large models emits orders of magnitude more CO₂ than a transatlantic flight, accelerating collapse while promising solutions.
Without intervention, these “gates” will unleash a feedback loop of destabilisation. Yet as Maximus warns, collaboration is our only leverage—not against gladiators, but against systems that reduce humanity to a disposable input.
Mesotopia: The Arena We Build
The future will be neither utopia nor dystopia, but mesotopia—a patchwork of partial wins and adaptive systems.
| Domain | Horizon 1 (Collapsing) | Horizon 3 (Mesotopian) |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | Gig apps trapping workers in debt cycles | Skill DAOs: AI matches mentors/learners; contributions earn “care credits” for healthcare |
| Justice | Prisons profiting from human suffering | Restorative Networks: AI mediates reparations through community service, not cages |
| Creativity | AI-generated spam drowning artists | Co-Creation Portals: Communities jointly design public art funded by algorithmic micro-patronage |
Mesotopia thrives on metamodern pragmatism: acting as if a better world is possible, even while auditing AI’s biases or shoring up floodwalls.
Skipping Horizon 2
Legacy systems (Horizon 1) cannot reform—they are too busy self-cannibalising. Transitional fixes (Horizon 2) are obsolete before launch. We must:
- Sabotage with Better Tools: Build open-source AI that lets tenants dispute evictions in minutes, bankrupting predatory algorithms.
- Preempt Corporate Capture: Launch worker-owned AI co-ops now—displaced lawyers running LLM collectives that provide free legal aid, funded by solidarity subscriptions.
- Embed Regenerative Loops: Design AI systems where cognitive surplus directly funds human flourishing. A stock-trading bot’s profits bankroll community land trusts.
The Gladiator Ethos
Maximus’s second warning—“What we do in life echoes in eternity”—is not about legacy, but urgency. History favours those who plant seeds in crisis:
- The Diggers’ Lesson: In 17th-century England, radicals reclaimed privatised land for communal farming. Though crushed, their ethos inspired centuries of labour movements.
- Our Task: Deploy AI to “common” the future. Every algorithm designed for justice, every institution bypassed, every community empowered becomes a seed of mesotopia.
Metrics for a New Era
Replace GDP with a Human-AI Symbiosis Index:
- % of essential services (housing, healthcare) governed by participatory systems
- Ratio of AI-generated wealth redirected to communal vs. private profit
- Hours spent on regenerative work (care, creativity) vs. survival labour
The Arena Awaits
The mesotopian future is neither guaranteed nor static—it is a practice. Every choice to collaborate, to build, to “common” AI defies the dystopian script. This is not optimism, but strategic defiance: legacy systems fall when people stop believing in their inevitability.
As the gates of the polycrisis creak open, we face a question sharper than any sword: Will we flee, fight for scraps, or build a new arena entirely?
The answer lies not in isolated heroism, but in the fabric we weave together. What we do now—in this messy, partial, glorious struggle—will echo in eternity.