December 31, 2025

Vibes, Cash & Automation | How AI is Changing Human Value

In the Republic, Plato introduced a concept that has quietly served as the architectural blueprint for Western social order: The Noble Lie. He argued that for a society to function, its citizens must believe a foundational myth—that people are born with different "metals" in their souls. The "Gold" souls were destined to rule, the "Silver" to protect, and the “Bronze" and “Iron” to produce. While modern sensibilities often recoil at such overt elitism, the underlying mechanism—the "sorting machine"—has never truly disappeared; it has simply updated its software.

In the 20th century, we transitioned from the myth of precious souls to the myth of Meritocracy. We replaced "metals" with "Intelligence Quotient" and "Grit." We built an expansive educational infrastructure designed to identify talent and elevate it, promising that the hierarchy was no longer a matter of birth, but of cognitive merit. However, as we enter the era of ubiquitous artificial intelligence, this "sorting machine" is facing a crisis of obsolescence, revealing a landscape where the old goalposts are being moved while the game is still in play.

Smarts are now a Utility

For the better part of a century, "Reason"—the ability to process complex logic, synthesize data, and execute technical tasks—was the ultimate currency of the upper class. To be a "Gold Soul" meant possessing the specialized knowledge of a lawyer, a coder, a professor or an engineer. Yet, we have arrived at a historical inflection point where high-level reasoning has become a commodity.

As AI systems continue to rapidly advance toward general intelligence, the technical mastery that once required decades of elite schooling can now be accessed for the price of a monthly subscription. When the "Gold Soul" of intelligence is available to anyone with an internet connection, its value as a status marker inevitably deflates. In an observant view, we are seeing the devaluation of the cognitive elite. If everyone can access or "act" like a genius for €20 a month, being a(round) genius is no longer extraordinary; it’s a utility, like running water—useful, but hardly a reason to wear a crown.

The “Soul" might have been an Algorithm all along

As technical skills become reproducible, the elite are instinctively moving the goalposts toward the subjective. We see an increasing emphasis on "vision," "taste," "authenticity," and "cultural relevance"—qualities that are intentionally difficult to quantify. This shift serves as a sophisticated form of gatekeeping: if a machine can do the math, the human must provide the “soul”. It is the revenge of the Art School - or so it seems.

AI shows us that "Soul" might just be another algorithm we haven't mapped yet. Critics of elitism suggest that "Taste" isn't a divine spark, but a pattern recognition system built over a lifetime of expensive exposure. If you grow up surrounded by high-status art, travel, and specific linguistic codes, your brain develops a "Human Soul" algorithm that perfectly matches the preferences of the ruling class.

The problem arises when the "sorting machine" rejects individuals based on a perceived lack of this "soul" rather than objective failure. History reminds us that this is a dangerous game. When the gatekeepers stop using grades and start using "vibes" to decide who gets in, they create a volatile class of the "Overeducated and Under-recognized." These people have the technical capacity to lead but are denied entry because they didn't grow up with the right aesthetic software. It’s a recipe for resentment that usually ends with someone trying to reboot the entire system by force - the fuel for every populist revolution.

Virtualism as Copium for the Masses

However the maintenance of a social hierarchy requires not just the exclusion of the lower classes, but their psychological buy-in into the very system that excludes them. Today, this is achieved through the feedback loop of social media. It acts as a global broadcast of the "Gold Soul" lifestyle, heightening what sociologists call Mimetic Desire. By making elite travel and leisure perpetually visible, these platforms ensure that everyone is constantly aware of their relative position in the hierarchy and what they should aspire to. However, as the physical markers of this lifestyle (luxury objects, real estate, exclusive travel) are prohibitively expensive, "Virtualism" emerges as a copium for the masses.

How lucky for us, then, that the same Big Tech companies fueling this envy are also building the Metaverse, increasingly positioning themselves to offer a "Virtual Gold" alternative. For those who cannot afford the physical world, the simulation provides a secondary theater of status. One might not own the villa in Tuscany, but one can explore its high-fidelity digital twin. This creates a dual-track society: a physical elite who maintain ownership of tangible, non-reproducible assets, and a virtual class who consume high-status "simulations" to mitigate the sting of their real-world "Bronze" status. In some sense this is still the meritocratic noble lie, just evolved for an era in which real world social mobility feels almost impossible: "You can still be whoever you want to be—as long as it’s in a headset.”

Money is the only Metal left

If we observe the trajectory of these shifts, the most likely prediction is not the end of hierarchy, but its consolidation. When AI automates “Smarts" and virtualism simulates “Soul", thus leaving humans to rely on vibes, the only objective marker of human value left is Capital.

This shift is driven by a total displacement of Plato’s original roles. For the sake of this argument, we can stick with these roles: If AI can automate the Producers (farming and manufacturing), the Protectors (security and legal defense), and even the Rulers (strategic management and CEOs), then the traditional "metals" of human contribution vanish. When the labor of production, the duty of protection, and the skill of ruling are all silicon, the hierarchy is no longer defined by your function in society, but by your ownership of tangible value. The "Noble Lie" of meritocracy begins to dissolve, leaving behind a Pure Plutocracy.

In a late-stage capitalist environment, this means: Money. It becomes the only "metal" that remains non-automated and non-virtual - a resource that allows for the luxury of "authenticity," the ability to fail repeatedly in the pursuit of "creativity," and for some, the ownership of the physical infrastructure that everyone else is just renting via the cloud. While we may continue to use the language of "merit" and “talent", the sorting machine increasingly measures only the depth of one's bank account.

Conclusion

Plato warned that Democracy eventually decays into Tyranny because the gap between the "Elite" and the "Masses" becomes a chasm of resentment. His proposed cycle of regimes suggests that when a society’s foundational myths no longer align with its economic reality, it moves toward a state of volatility. By making "Money" the only real goalpost while pretending the game is still about "Grit," we are creating the perfect conditions for a collapse. The digital era has only accelerated this process.

The challenge of the coming decades will be navigating this new Plutocracy. We are currently at a fork in the road. One path leads to a world where AI truly redistributes the "Gold" of human potential. The other leads to a world where the majority are kept satisfied in a "Virtual Ghetto" of simulated status, while a small elite maintains a monopoly on the physical world. Which means Plato was right about one thing after all: the Lie is only "Noble" if it keeps people from noticing who actually owns the land. ■