In an age when the future is no longer a concept but a consequence of choices made in labs, boardrooms, and algorithms, Dr. Ben Goertzel and the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance have thrown down a gauntlet. On April 16th, Goertzel unveiled The Ten Reckonings of AGI — ten vital, unanswered questions that could very well define the next era of human history.
This isn’t another think piece on the potential of artificial intelligence. This is a siren — a call to every citizen, policymaker, technologist, and dreamer to stop sleepwalking toward a future dominated by systems we neither fully understand nor control. Because the data is clear: the public is increasingly uneasy, and for good reason.
According to new findings from the ASI Alliance, nearly half of Americans believe AI is being developed for the benefit of a privileged few. Fifty-four percent already feel powerless to influence where it’s heading. That’s not progress — that’s a democratic crisis unfolding in code.
A Reckoning Long Overdue
Goertzel, a long-standing rebel voice in AI, has spent his career pushing against the concentration of power in Silicon Valley and state-run superstructures. His newest initiative doesn’t just pose philosophical queries — it demands urgent reflection on ethical, existential, and practical levels.
Each of The Ten Reckonings targets a different pressure point in the AI debate – we conclude the highlights:
- Purpose: Should we even pursue AGI at this scale?
- Control: Will this power be shared, or hoarded?
- Equality: Will it uplift humanity or entrench inequality?
- Bias, Justice, Autonomy — the list goes on, culminating in a chilling but necessary inquiry: If AI surpasses us, what does it mean to be human?
These aren’t sci-fi hypotheticals. From job automation to predictive policing, generative art to autonomous weapons, the “future” is here. What Goertzel is offering isn’t a manifesto — it’s a mirror.
Speed Without Scrutiny
“The pace we’re moving toward AGI is technologically breathtaking,” Goertzel said. “But speed without scrutiny is dangerous.” It’s a truth few in the industry are willing to say out loud.
Corporations are sprinting toward AGI with one eye on profits and the other closed entirely. Governments either lack the literacy to intervene or are racing to weaponize the tech themselves. Meanwhile, the people — you, me, the other 99% — are left out of the room where it happens.
This is why decentralisation is no longer just a technical model. It’s a democratic necessity. The ASI Alliance, supported by members like SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and CUDOS, represents a new kind of infrastructure — one that’s open, ethical, and built for the many, not the few.
Choosing Our Tomorrow
What makes The Ten Reckonings so powerful is their clarity. Goertzel and the ASI Alliance aren’t preaching doom, but agency. These are questions we must answer, and soon. Because if we don’t — if we continue letting a handful of companies and militaries determine the fate of intelligence — we may cross a point of no return.
And it won’t be AGI that failed us. It’ll be us, failing ourselves.
So what now? We participate. We question. We challenge. We show up. The ASI Alliance is opening the conversation, but it’s on us to keep it going — in schools, in parliaments, in public discourse, in code. If this technology is going to shape all of humanity, then all of humanity must shape it.
Because the future shouldn’t be engineered behind closed doors. It should be reckoned with — openly, together.
