Omnid

Toward the Humane Use of Technology - A Framework for Post-Extractive Human Progress

21st July, 02025



Abstract

We propose a reframing of technological innovation as a fundamentally human-centric process, decoupled from traditional profit-driven motives and aligned instead with systemic augmentation of human purpose, capacity, and collaboration. We introduce a framework derived from systems thinkers and augmentation pioneers (e.g. Engelbart) that provides the structural underpinnings necessary to shift from technology used to people (i.e. exploitative attention systems) to technology used for people. We argue that the next phase of human civilization must prioritize the negentropic alignment of human cognition, creativity, and collaboration with intelligent systems that enable distributed, self-directed societal progress.



1. From Extraction to Augmentation

Historically, technological progress has been directed by the prevailing incentives of its age: survival, religious dominance, national competition, and capitalist extraction. Each epoch has seen innovation tethered to centralized interests. In contrast, our current intelligence-rich environment offers an unprecedented opportunity to decouple progress from conquest. Instead, we propose an intent shift: technology as a means to enhance human meaning-making, peace, and cooperative potential.



2. The Engelbartian Lens: A-B-C Framework

Using Engelbart's A-B-C model of human augmentation:


  • A: Basic human activity (living, learning, creating)
  • B: The tools/processes/methods used to do A (institutions, knowledge systems)
  • C: Meta-level work that improves B (system design, capability infrastructure)

We posit that current efforts to "improve the world" fail due to a lack of investment in the C process. Current B-processes (corporate structures, traditional employment, siloed expertise) incentivize profit and control, not systemic clarity or collective intelligence.



3. Human Cognitive Entropy and the Misuse of Tech

Attention-hacking technologies (e.g. TikTok, surveillance capitalism) weaponize human vulnerabilities. These systems create temporary pleasure while increasing cognitive entropy. We argue that real human satisfaction arises from negentropy: finding order, coherence, creative alignment. Thus, humane tech must restore the possibility for directed cognition, autonomous contribution, and shared purpose.



4. Systemic Reorientation: Design Principles


  • Permissionless Contribution: Build platforms and protocols where individuals can act meaningfully without top-down authorization.
  • Visible Opportunity Landscapes: Map underrecognized problems, missions, and local/global needs that technical minds can apply themselves to.
  • Cross-Domain Collaboration: Forge co-creation ecosystems where tech minds (material shapeshifters) and philosophical minds (mental shapeshifters) can collaborate as structured peers.
  • Post-Capital Coordination Models: Develop value systems and incentive layers beyond profit — focused on capability, relevance, and progress.
  • Identity-Integrated Knowledge Graphs: Context-aware, non-linear learning infrastructures that adapt to a person’s lived purpose and trajectory.


5. Societal Transformation and the Call for a New Infrastructure

What must be built is not another company or movement, but a distributed C-process infrastructure: a cognitive, digital, and philosophical scaffolding that:

  • Allows for new roles in civilization (the System Mapper, the Ecosystem Architect, the Mental Infrastructure Maintainer)
  • Connects those in existential crisis with those in technological immersion
  • Enables progress as a collaborative, living process rather than a competitive, extractive contest


Conclusion: Reclaiming Intelligence for Humanity

We do not lack intelligence. We lack structured initiation processes that help humans apply that intelligence toward collective ends. The humane use of technology begins with enabling people to live meaningfully, not just efficiently. We propose a new era of coordinated emergence: where human alignment, not algorithmic addiction, becomes the frontier.

If you are not working for humanity, then whom are you working for?

This is not a rhetorical question. It is the beginning of a new decision tree.



It’s the tired and disillusioned, who have the reasons to create the new.