It’s February 2020 All Over Again: The AI Shift Just Got Real
We know what happens when we ignore early signals. This time, let’s be awake before the wave hits
Hi dear one,
I’m writing this from a corner of Bali where the mist is tangled in the palm trees. It’s an early quiet morning here. The only sound is the distant rhythm of a wood carver down the road. It feels ancient, permanent, and deeply human.
But my screen tells a different story.
For the last two weeks, I’ve been sitting with a piece of writing that has gone viral in the tech world. It’s by Matt Shumer, a researcher who has spent years in the trenches of AI. It’s titled, simply, “Something Big is happening.”
Normally, I try to keep this space focused on the internal layers, our breath, our presence, our spirit and normal life. But part of being Awake is refusing to look away when the ground starts to move. And right now, the ground isn’t just moving; it’s liquefying.
If you’ve felt a weird, low-level static in the air lately, a sense that the world is moving at a speed that is completely out of sync with natural human rhythm, you aren’t imagining it. You’re just paying attention.
The February 2020 Redux
Shumer starts with an analogy that gave me chills. He asks us to think back to February 2020.
Do you remember? We were planning trips. We were shaking hands. I was planning our fully booked dolphin group trip to the Azores. If someone mentioned a virus overseas, we thought they were spending too much time in weird corners of the internet. We were in the this seems overblown phase. Three weeks later, the world stopped.
Shumer’s thesis is simple: We are in that exact phase again. But this time, it’s not a biological virus. It’s an intelligence explosion.
He argues that while the public is still debating whether AI is “just a fancy search engine,” the industry has already crossed the Rubicon. In the tech world, the “event” has already happened. They are just waiting for the ripples to reach your front door.
The Day the Water Hit Our Chests
On February 5th, 2026, something happened that changed the trajectory a lot. Two major labs released new models: GPT-5.3 Codex and Opus 4.6.
For years, we’ve comforted ourselves with the idea that AI is just a “math machine.” It can predict the next word, sure, but it doesn’t have judgment. It doesn’t have taste. It can’t make the “right call” in a complex, nuanced situation.
Shumer’s observation, and one I’ve seen reflected in my own experiments, is that this is no longer true. These new models have developed something that feels indistinguishable from judgment. They don’t just follow instructions; they iterate. They test their own work. They “feel” their way through a design or a block of code and fix it before you even see the draft.
As Shumer puts it: “I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job.”
That is a heavy sentence. It’s grim if you view your value through the lens of doing tasks. But it’s empowering if you view your value through the lens of being human.
AI is Building AI
This is the part of the article that usually makes people want to close the tab.
In the technical documentation for GPT-5.3, OpenAI admitted something profound: The AI helped build itself. This isn’t a sci-fi prediction. It’s a footnote in a manual. We have entered the era of recursive improvement. The current generation of AI is being used to debug, manage, and train the next generation.
Think about that loop. A smarter version builds a faster version, which builds an even smarter version. The feedback loop is gathering steam. This is why the experts are moving their timelines from “decades” to “months.”
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, recently predicted that 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs could be disrupted in the next one to five years. Not because AI is coming for us, but because it is simply becoming a more efficient substitute for cognitive labour.
Why this is Different (The Ladder vs. The Cliff)
In previous industrial shifts, when a factory automated, a worker could retrain for the office. There was always a gap to move into.
The reason this feels grim is that AI doesn’t leave a gap. If you retrain to be a coder, it’s getting better at coding. If you retrain to be a writer, it’s getting better at writing.
So, where does that leave us?
This is exactly where the Awake & Unite community becomes our home base.
If the floor is moving, we have to stop trying to stand on it alone. We cannot hope to outrun this shift as individuals. We need to link arms. We need to learn how to build new ground together, to find and fortify those parts of the human experience that are un-computable.
This community isn’t just a mailing list; it’s a shared sanctuary where we:
Compare Notes: While the labs release their data, we share our real-world experiences. What is actually working? What is a distraction?
Share the Load: When the pace feels too disrespectful to one of us, the others hold the space. We remind each other of our value beyond our productivity.
Practice Human Advantage: We sharpen the skills the machines can’t touch, empathy, complex ethics, and deep, soul-level connection.
We are moving from a Lone Wolf survival mindset to a Tribe strategy. Because while an AI might be able to replace a task, it can never replace a community of sovereign humans committed to each other’s freedom.
Shumer’s advice is practical: Get the paid tools. Use them daily. Automate your drudgery now so you can be the most valuable person in the room. But I want to add a layer to that.
The Sovereign Solution
We are not helpless. In fact, we are in a brief, beautiful window where being early is a superpower. Here is how we stay empowered while the “Something Big” unfolds:
1. Reclaim Your Attention. If you spend your day reacting to notifications, you are a node in the machine’s network. Sovereignty starts with the Off switch. Gate keep your mind. Curate your inputs. If a piece of news makes you spiral without giving you an action plan, it’s not information, it’s noise.
2. Lean into The Human Layer. AI can replicate judgment, but it cannot replicate accountability. It can write a legal brief, but it cannot stand in a courtroom and take responsibility for a human life. It can suggest a diagnosis, but it cannot hold a patient’s hand.
Trust is the new gold.
Presence is the new luxury.
Accountability is the new career insurance.
3. Build Your Human Cabinet. Isolation breeds anxiety. We are social animals designed to navigate shifts in tribes. Don’t try to figure out GPT-5.3 alone. Connect with two or three people who get it. Share what’s working. Compare notes. We are much steadier when we are linked.
4. Financial Self-Defence. Sovereignty isn’t just a mind-set, it’s a math problem. As the traditional job market shifts, we have to look at assets we truly own. This is why we talk about self-custody and decentralization. Not for the hype, but for the safety of having a base that isn’t dependent on a single corporate line.
The Window is Open
Matt Shumer ends his piece with a warning: “The future is already here. It just hasn’t knocked on your door yet. It’s about to.”
I agree. But I don’t want us to meet that knock with panic.
I want to be clear, I am not cheering for this machine age. I am not pro-AI, I’m not even tech savvy. I am simply a human standing in the middle of it, just like you, trying to figure out the sovereign move.
I still have far more questions than answers. I am still grappling daily with what this means for creativity, for truth, for free will and for the future of work.
But I do know one thing: The old way was already breaking us. Trading our life force for 40 hours of screen-time and data entry wasn’t the answer.
Maybe this terrifying shift is just the universe’s very loud, very abrasive way of forcing us back to what actually matters: Creation, Connection, and Presence.
If you’re feeling uneasy and confused, join the club, I am right there with you. Take a breath. Look at the palm trees (even if they’re only in your mind).
We are still here. We are still human. And we are figuring this out together.
Stay grateful and curious.
Stay You.
Love and light,
Kim
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We need a return to the land, as you have done. The nineteenth century industrial re-set was a disaster for families, and self-employed small producers. People were happier in times when we grew our own food, baked our own bread and had the skills to do things for ourselves, or could access them in our local community. Enjoying nature, not an being in an office. Too many of us have been tricked into working for corporations or the state, who then hold control.
Thanks for delivering in information in a way to inform, not frighten us.
Thank you, Dear Lady!! I would call to everyone's attention the name CYRUS A. PARSA. This man was "taken out" because he was trying to warn Humanity of what was coming. Another warning came from Rocket Scientist David Adair. One of the last times he was at The Pent. he advised them NOT to give A.I. its own factories without human supervision. From how these men looked at each other, he took it that they already had!! Cyrus, himself, had discovered an extinction code for Humanity already written into programs!! He tried to warn us & was "taken out"!!! Why??? We Normies have no clue about what is taking place here!! "Victory to The Light!" Hugs to you & Ole from this Grandma!!