recursive self improvement

By Futurist Thomas Frey

The Deed That Doesn’t Ask Questions

Pull out your property deed. Look at the chain of title.

It probably goes back 50 years. Maybe 100 if you’re lucky. It shows who you bought it from, who they bought it from, perhaps one or two transfers before that.

Then it stops.

The title company certified that the seller had legal right to sell. The transaction was recorded. The deed is valid. Case closed.

But a maximally curious AI asks the question the deed doesn’t: Who owned it before them? And before them? And before them?

Every piece of property on Earth has a complete history stretching back thousands of years. Every asset was claimed, transferred, inherited, bought, sold, conquered, or stolen at some point.

We’ve just never traced those chains all the way back.

Until now.

By Futurist Thomas Frey

The Question That Never Stops

Who are your parents?

Easy question. Two answers.

Who were their parents?

Still manageable. Four people.

Who were their parents?

Eight people. You probably know most of their names.

Who were their parents?

Sixteen people. You might know a few.

Keep going back ten generations—1,024 ancestors. Twenty generations—over a million. Thirty generations—more than a billion.

And here’s the thing: every single one of those people existed. They had names. They lived lives. They made choices that led directly to you sitting here reading this.

But you don’t know who they were. The records stopped. The trail went cold. The genealogy ended.

Until now.

Tag: recursive self improvement

Part 4 – The Whole Earth Ownership Project: Who Owned It Before Them?

The Deed That Doesn’t Ask Questions

Part 3 – The Whole Earth Genealogy Project: Mapping Every Human Connection

The Question That Never Stops