A New Default

There’s a book written 71 years ago you’ve probably heard of -- I Am Legend. Most people know it through the 2007 Will Smith movie, but I believe the film dropped the most powerful part: the original ending.

The novel popularized the idea of a global apocalypse caused by disease long before The Last of Us. It’s a story about a world reshaped by a pandemic -- one that wiped out most of humanity and turned the infected into what we’d call vampires.

The protagonist, Robert Neville, finds himself in a pickle. He, a relic of the old world, is clinging to what was, but the world has already moved on. A new race has emerged, and to them, he is the monster and superstition. Their legend -- just like vampires once were to us.

So, what am I getting at?

Watching AI spread into every corner of life, it’s starting to feel pretty lonely in the privacy world. You read the news, see the latest launches from AI bros and startups, and wonder: maybe you’re the one who's wrong. Maybe you’re just stubbornly holding on to an old world where some level of privacy still existed.

Maybe this is the new world -- always on, always watched. Maybe privacy was the glitch, and this is the new default.

And maybe, like Robert Neville, you’re already a relic of the past.