inherence vs. the algorithm

our world 100 years from now, shaped by coherence, not just by machines

Imagine, if you will, a tall, thin inventor sitting quietly in a wingback chair, being interviewed for a magazine exactly one hundred years ago.

The U.S. he lives in is rapidly changing: more Americans now live in cities than not, and about half the households have electricity. Forty percent of Americans live on less than $1,500 a year, but Charlie Chaplin’s silent films are all the rage, Louis Armstrong is delighting audiences with jazz, and speakeasies are jammed with people seeking relief from Prohibition.

The mustached innovator speaks of his vision, his piercing blue-gray eyes sparkling as he describes a world so fantastical, it borders on absurd:

“When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain… We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. … We shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles…

The instruments … will be amazingly simple … A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

We shall be able to witness and hear events – the inauguration of a President, the playing of a world series game, the havoc of an earthquake or the terror of a battle – just as though we were present.”

- Nikola Tesla, January 30, 1926, interviewed by Colliers magazine.

One hundred years later, we DO see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, even across oceans or from the space station. And we DO carry the instruments in our pockets, on our wrists, or clipped to the handlebars of our electric bikes.

In other words, Tesla nailed it.

So the question becomes:

What will our world look like one hundred years from now?

In The Future is Faster Than You Think, authors Peter Diamondis and Steven Kotler present a reality in which new spinal cords and bionic eyeballs are 3D-printed, ribeye steaks are cultured from stem cells, “smart” contact lenses project screens onto the back of your retina, and “floating cities” expand real estate into the oceans.

Whether or not these particular innovations come to pass exactly as described -- whether or not we evolve into a brain-computer-interface species, take spring break trips to space hotels or commute to intergalactic office parks -- the world of 2126 will be as incomprehensible to us as our current world might be to Tesla.

Our grandkids’ grandkids will giggle at how we lugged around six-inch “smartphones,” poured liquid dinosaur bones into “cars,” panicked about AI, and considered 20^th-century healthcare anything but medieval.

They’ll go to museums to study things like “gym equipment.”

And they’ll shake their heads incredulously at the way we tolerated work norms that diminished our health and joy simply because we needed “paychecks and benefits.”

Most of us really cannot imagine the future – but we CAN prepare for a world we can’t imagine.

And we must.

Because the next leap in human evolution is not mechanical.

It is intrinsic.

Not merging with machines, not adding layers of man-made complexity, but simplifying – allowing the innate potentials of our bodymind systems to flourish.

In other words, the rigid, emotionally-charged armor we’ve inherited -- born of disconnection, numbness, chronic stress, and survival adaptations -- must be metabolized.

We must liberate ourselves from the conditioned prison of needing external validation, so that we can live and express our natural sovereignty.

We must deepen our trust of our own inner compass – sourced from our inherence.

We must develop new cultural norms that value presence, attunement, and connection – not as luxuries, but as essential forms of intelligence.

Our world, one hundred years from now, will require that we have the ability to live from resonance:

• To make choices based on frequency, rather than “shoulds”

• To sense coherence and distortion in the body

• To discern truth versus manipulation

• To navigate complexity from our inner guidance

And, we’re already in training, immersed in the growth laboratory of modern society, which provides skill development via the contrast of:

• “deep fakes” flooding social feeds

• manipulative headlines engineered to hijack attention

• online influencers selling performance identities and a disembodied illusion of “success”

• algorithms amplifying distortion fields

Evolving our interior means asking:

What is true for me?

What resonates?

What feels coherent in my body?

What aligns with my inherence?

These are the muscles we’re building now.

But interior evolution alone is not enough. We need bigger stories, too – narratives capable of holding the world that’s emerging.

Let’s go back to Tesla’s time again.

One hundred years ago, the cultural battle between “creationists” and “modernists” raged in America, highlighted by the sensational Scopes Monkey Trial, staged to challenge a Tennessee law that forbade teachers from contradicting the Bible’s creation story.

On the surface, the question was, should the Bible be interpreted literally? Or is it more of an allegory?

(The defense lawyer had a heyday with this, attempting to get the prosecuting attorney to explain just how, exactly, Eve was created from Adam’s rib, if the Bible is literal truth.)

But beneath the legal question was a deeper rumble, an inquiry into the kinds of stories that explain who we really are.

Do humans have a special place in the universe?

Are we divine exceptions, or natural participants in evolutionary unfolding?

Fast forward a century and the details differ, but the battle still rages.

Are we the pinnacle of existence? Or are we evolutionary bugs on the windshield, subject to the laws of nature like any other species?

Are our technologies amplifying ego, extraction, and individualism? Or can they enhance our experience of coherence and relational interconnectedness?

The stories we tell about who we are, shape the world we build.

And right now, most of our inherited narratives are too limited, too polarizing, too brittle to hold the complexity of the world that’s emerging.

If we are going to create a future that’s not “either-or” – God OR evolution, individualistic OR interconnected whole – we need creation stories and cosmological narratives that reflect a more integrated BOTH-AND worldview.

Right now, much of society perceives paradox as a threat, unconsciously assuming that if one side is true, the other loses – and vice versa.

We need a worldview in which individual interiority and interconnectedness are not opposites, but expressions of the same living field – a worldview in which paradox becomes a doorway to deeper intelligence and creativity.

And while Tesla is best known for his scientific imagination, he also predicted this, in a way, when he stated in that same interview that future women will “ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.”

Part of this “startling of civilization” is restoring value to our interior experience – that which has been devalued in a world of glitzy gadgets and shiny achievement trophies.

Nervous system regulation – the restoration of order to our biological and neurological interior systems – is one layer.

Working skillfully with emotions, energy, and relational dynamics is another.

Tapping into the creative power that comes from being rooted in one’s own inherence IS what will progress our civilization.

The future may, on the surface, look like it is defined by technological advancement.

But the future does not belong to the loudest voices, the fanciest gadgets, or the most complex algorithms.

It belongs to those of us who listen inwardly, attune to coherence, and live from inherence: the innate intelligence that arises from within and that knows itself as part of a larger whole.

The future already exists within us – as potentials we are developing, one coherent choice at a time.

Here’s to becoming even more exquisitely human… for a world that will require it.