What happens to a system when more and more people realize it no longer works in their interest?

In today’s economy, too many things that benefit society are unprofitable — and too many profitable things harm society.

We see this everywhere in our daily lives.

Social media extracts profit from our attention instead of helping us build meaningful connections.

News media keeps us perpetually outraged and afraid instead of informing us.

AI is on a trajectory to hollow out our economy (or worse) instead of enriching us intellectually and materially.

And despite the breakthroughs of the information age, conflicts of interest in medicine, science, and agribusiness leave us unsure of what’s truly good for our bodies and minds.

So why does the system fail to serve people’s interests across so many domains?

It’s not really because of greed. Nor because of some conspiracy or shadowy cabal plotting to make our lives miserable. The truth is simpler.

Our economy currently has business models for consumer and commercial goods — but not for ecosystem goods, the kinds of goods that benefit society as a whole.

When we try to shoehorn ecosystem goods like journalism, AI, or medicine into limiting business models, we inevitably create misaligned incentives — a dynamic that enriches the few while disadvantaging the many.

With the acceleration of exponential technologies, these dynamics can easily push us toward dystopian — or even catastrophic — outcomes for society.

But there’s good news: we can change that!