The New Jerusalem
By W. F. Twyman, Jr.
We have to accept that clusters of the like-minded come together and create life. Once upon a time, Lauryn Hill reminded us of her world growing up in the New Jerusalem. Every Ghetto, Every City, And suburban place I’ve been. Hill sings of the banalities of life that infused her memories of what she had with such meaning. Beefs with the cops, everyone’s name was Muslim, everyone used to do the Wop. She longs for those days, that they never stopped. These experiences were not my experiences growing up. And yet I am moved by her pietas in all she remembers.
The New Jerusalem to me is a place where one experiences the depths of human meaning. Could be a ghetto. Could be a city. Could be a suburban place I’ve been like Chester, Virginia. Could be Silicon Valley:
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Deedy @ deedydas
The vibes in SF feel frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I’ve ever seen.
Over the last 5 yrs, a group of around 10k people-employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders-have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation).
Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there.
Worst yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life’s skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI.
As a result,
The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb. Everyone’s trying to align with a new set of career “paths”: should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic/Open AI? should I get into AI? what company stock will be 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more.
There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future). Why even work at all for “peanuts” ? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It’s hard to focus on doing good work when you think “man, If I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire.”
The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed. Many have families and don’t feel like they had the energy or network to just “start a company.” They don’t particularly have AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies.
The rich aren’t particularly happy either. No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have “made it” experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to “live life.” For others still, they start companies “just cuz,” often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they’s be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn’t just sell the co and they said “and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. If I sell, I will only have money.”
I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here.
Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. “Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?” It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of “success.”
Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.
11:34 PM - May 15, 2026 * 10.8M Views
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I read those words and my mind imagines a New Jerusalem. A New Jerusalem where there is supposed to be no more pain, no more sorrow. A place of unprecedented consciousness on planet earth. No more war, no more hunger. In the desire to escape drugery, like-minded AI coders create a new world, pure and full of possibility. A beautiful city of +$20 million retirements for those in their 30s.
The New Jerusalem
Imagine a young Lauryn Hill this morning living in the New Jerusalem. Surrounded by the blessings of abundance, wealth was just there. She grows up in the shadow of Anthropic and Open AI. Robots mow her lawn and clean her home to the delight of Mom and Dad. She has a close relationship with the nanny as Dad refuses to sell the company and become just money and Mom has her own start up on Sand Hill. Lauryn has more AI friends than human friends. Less trouble and misunderstandings.
“I was just a little girl Skinny legs, a press and curl”—Every Ghetto, Every City by Lauryn Hill
What I want to know is how will our young Lauryn Hill remember the streets of her New Jerusalem? Will she look back with fondness of beefs with the police, popsicles, Kung Fung cartoons on Saturday mornings, stolen cars, drill teams, beefs between neighborhoods, fireworks in Martin stadium, and dancing the Wop with friends?
Our young Lauryn Hill will learn truth and reality are interchangeable. Her memories will be of AI generated art like the image above. And it will seem normal to her. She will come of age in a techno-feudal culture where homage is paid to the titans of artificial intelligence. For young Lauryn, the great existential crisis will be comparison with others. There is always someone with more wealth around the corner or up the hill overlooking the Bay or the Pacific Ocean. She has the best in AI therapists who will teach her the Golden Rule: Comparison is the Theft of Joy.
“My Mother always thought I’d be a star.”—Every Ghetto, Every City by Lauryn Hill
The soft underbelly of the New Jerusalem is malaise. Little Lauryn loves to sing and write songs. Mom is encouraging but the streets of New Jerusalem do not nurture our young Lauryn Hill. Our young Lauryn discovers her namesake in the AI Archives. She is floored by the soul and passion of Every Ghetto, Every City. There is nothing in her New Jerusalem that calls forth inspiration from her soul. Since she could sit up, she was a screen baby. Mom and Dad knew better since they were in the frontier AI business. But the nanny found it easier to hand little Lauryn a smartphone than to read to Lauryn every day.
And so little Lauryn cannot think as well as her grandparents when they were her age. So much of her cognitive functioning has been outsourced. Did you know she uses AI to bake peanut butter cookies? She needs each step by step broken down. She grows frustrated when answers do not come right away. Why use your brain when you have AI? She uses AI as a life advisor.
One day, she asked AI if she could write a song about her New Jerusalem. The AI said, of course. “A child of extraordinary gifts growing up in the shadow of Anthropic and OpenAI — what does she inherit? The tools of unimaginable creative and intellectual leverage. And simultaneously a world in which the people who built those tools are sitting in their Marin County homes wondering what it was all for.”
Lauryn tried to create a song that would touch the listener. After a while, she gave up and prompted AI to generate a song New Jerusalem.
Conclusion: As we create the Promised Land in this life, it stands to reason that nothing about AI is sacred or divine. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Every ghetto, city, every suburban place I have been has meaning which gives purpose to life. Remove purpose and the New Jerusalem becomes hollow. May all of the little Lauryn Hills in the New Jerusalem live in meaning despite the streets paved with gold.
“Make me recall my days in New Jerusalem. Make me recall my days in New Jerusalem.” — Every Ghetto, Every City by Lauryn Hill
Her music is definitely exciting and interesting!
Love her! Her music, voice. One day, He is coming back and all will be made new!!! Perfect!!!