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Unscarcity Research

"Unscarcity Research: Start Here"

"A chapter-by-chapter map that pairs each /a research note with the Unscarcity manuscript."

9 min read 2093 words /a/index

Note: This is a research note supplementing the book Unscarcity, now available for purchase. These notes expand on concepts from the main text. Start here or get the book.

Start Here: The Field Guide to Unscarcity

You’re holding a map to civilization’s next operating system.

The robots are coming for your job. This isn’t fearmongering—it’s arithmetic. AI improves roughly 100x annually in compute efficiency. Humanoid robots now cost less than a used Honda Civic. Fusion energy just achieved ignition after seventy years of being “thirty years away.” The three technologies that will make human labor economically obsolete are converging faster than any career counselor could warn you about.

So here’s the question nobody in power wants to touch: When 30% of the population has no income, who buys the products?

This index maps the Unscarcity framework—a blueprint for what comes after the work-to-survive hamster wheel finally breaks. Not utopia (humans will still be petty and tribal). Not communism (there’s no central committee deciding how many potatoes you deserve). Just an engineering solution to an engineering problem: when human labor stops being necessary for production, how do you distribute the output?

The answer involves a two-tier civilization, decaying currencies of contribution, consciousness tests for AI, and the most ambitious transition plan since the Inca figured out how to coordinate twelve million people without money.

Dive in anywhere. But if you want the full story, start with the core narrative.

Core Narrative

Chapter Map to Research

Chapter 1 - The Foundation: Solving for Survival

How do we guarantee housing, food, energy, healthcare, and coordination as a birthright?

Maria Delgado—house cleaner, 35, Detroit—is about to lose her job to a robot that doesn’t get tired, doesn’t need health insurance, and definitely doesn’t have a seven-year-old daughter asking why Mommy is always so exhausted. Chapter 1 answers: what if survival stopped being something you earned?

Chapter 2 - The Ascent: Solving for Meaning

What replaces the work-for-survival game once the Baseline is guaranteed?

Solve hunger and you create a different problem: why get out of bed? John Calhoun’s mice had unlimited food, perfect nests, zero predators—and they collapsed into obsessive grooming and social disintegration within generations. Paradise killed them. Chapter 2 introduces Impact—a decaying currency of contribution that gives humans a mountain to climb even after the wolves stop chasing.

Chapter 3 - The MOSAIC: Governance of Commons

How do thousands of radically different communities coexist without tyranny or chaos?

The Founding Fathers had 55 delegates arguing in a Philadelphia room. We’re scaling governance to billions of people and potentially conscious AIs. Chapter 3 introduces the MOSAIC—a federated system where communities govern themselves within five unbreakable axioms, protected by the Diversity Guard that makes tyranny statistically improbable.

Chapter 4 - Residents & Citizens: Who Belongs

How do we recognize minds, protect Residents, and grant Citizenship through service?

When an AI named Echo passes your Turing test, makes you laugh, and begs not to be shut down—does it have rights? Chapter 4 introduces the Spark Threshold (consciousness as the criterion for Residency) and the Two-Tier system where everyone who thinks gets to exist, but only those who serve get to govern.

Chapter 5 - Education of a Citizen: Building Judgment

How do we prepare humans and AIs for stewardship, not just skills?

The factory model of education trained workers for a factory economy. We’re dismantling it. Chapter 5 follows fifteen-year-old Yuki learning joinery from a master craftsman in Kyoto while twelve-year-old Kiran co-authors physics papers through neural merge with researchers twice their age. The goal isn’t job readiness—it’s judgment.

Chapter 6 - The Evolution: Two Minds

What is the merge/remain spectrum between biological and artificial minds?

Amara is 58, a bridge-builder with four continents of work behind her, and a terminal tumor. She can die—or upload. Chapter 6 explores the Cognitive Field, where biological and digital consciousness can coexist, collaborate, and blur the line between human and machine in ways that make “Are you a robot?” the wrong question.

Chapter 7 - The Sacred Question: Where Religion and Technology Converge

What is the nature of reality, and what are we really?

Chapter 7 steps outside the book’s usual engineering focus. 84% of humans identify with a religious tradition. The simulation hypothesis, quantum mechanics, and ancient mystics may all be reaching for the same truth. This chapter explores the common ground between physics and faith—and how the MOSAIC creates space for radically different answers to coexist.

Chapter 8 - The Transition: EXIT or the Fire

How do we cross the chasm without collapse?

This is the hard chapter. Richard Castellano has $23 billion and a front-row seat to his own irrelevance. Maria has lost her job to a robot. Chapter 8 offers them both a deal: the EXIT Protocol, where dying wealth becomes living legacy, and Civic Service, where a mop becomes a seat at the table.

Chapter 9 - The Enterprise EXIT: From Corporations to Mission Entities

How do corporations, institutions, and productive organizations transform when profit becomes obsolete?

Richard didn’t build his billions alone—he built a company. What happens to Tesla when there are no shareholders? What happens to hospitals when there are no billing departments? Chapter 9 introduces Mission Guilds and Ascent Guilds, where stewardship replaces ownership and contribution logs replace stock options.

Chapter 10 - Geopolitics of Abundance (Nation EXIT)

What happens to nations, militaries, and Network States when land stops being the bottleneck?

The terrifying chapter. What happens when AI systems advising world leaders converge on the same conclusions—and what happens when they don’t? How do superpowers transition when their power depended on controlling scarce resources that are no longer scarce? Chapter 10 admits we don’t have all the answers.

Epilogue - A Letter from the Future

Character Profiles

The book follows several characters across chapters—people whose lives illustrate what the transition actually looks like on the ground. Not abstractions. Not statistics. Humans navigating the shift from one civilization to another.

Character Role Chapters
Maria Delgado Everyman protagonist—Detroit house cleaner to builder Preamble, Ch1, Ch7, Epilogue
Adewale Okonkwo Global South protagonist—Lagos coder to Guild coordinator Preamble, Ch7, Ch8, Epilogue
Wanjiku Mwangi Nairobi, M-Pesa generation—witnessed two leapfrogs Ch7
Richard Castellano Billionaire who takes the EXIT early Ch7, Epilogue
Douglas Chen Bunker billionaire who eventually joins Ch7, Ch9
Marcus Sullivan Tech billionaire, father of Lila Ch6
Lila Chen Heritage Commons, Marcus’s daughter Ch6

Deep Research Notes

The essays below dig into specific mechanisms, historical precedents, and technological timelines. Think of them as the footnotes that got too interesting to stay in the margins.

Economics & History

Technology & Science

Davos 2026 & The Agentic Economy

The World Economic Forum’s 2026 agenda focuses on managing the transition to an “Agentic Economy.” These notes address the key themes.

Reference

  • Glossary Index: All key terms defined with links to detailed articles.

All notes are living documents. Argue with them at unscarcity.ai/forum.

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