Man of Earth: Masculinity’s future
Notes from a book in progress exploring masculinity, belonging and the possibility of ending the age of domination.
I am writing a book called ‘Man of Earth’. It began with a question: “What is the place of a man in a world learning to live through relationship rather than domination?”
As I began exploring that question, it opened into many others – about masculinity, attraction, fatherhood, belonging, initiation, power, responsibility, mastery, and the moment in history we happen to be living through.
I am not presenting answers. I am exploring questions – questions from a man trying to find his new place in an emerging life-affirming vision of an ecological civilisation on our blue planet Earth.
This is Chapter 1.
CHAPTER 1
Masculinity’s future
“This AI system can answer every question,” the engineer said.
“Can it tell us what is right?” asked the old man.
The engineer looked at the screen.
“No,” he replied. “That part is still up to us.”
You have probably heard about that AI – artificial intelligence – could become more intelligent than human beings. Honestly, that is not even a question any longer. It will. And soon. The real question is whether humanity becomes wise enough to deal with that new situation.
Throughout this book you wil see me arguing that humanity is living through the end of an age of domination.
For centuries, many of our most powerful institutions have been shaped by values such as conquest, competition, control, extraction and accumulation. These values did not emerge from men alone, nor are they present in all men. Yet they have often been associated with a particular form of masculinity – one that measures success through power over others rather than relationship with others.
Today, that worldview still occupies many of the commanding heights of society. Most governments are still led primarily by men. Most large corporations are still led primarily by men. Much of the global financial system, military system and fossil fuel economy remains under the influence of values inherited from an earlier age.
In this decade, humanity has introduced something entirely new into this picture: Artificial intelligence. AI is often described as a revolutionary technology. In reality, AI is something even more significant. It is an amplifier. It can amplify intelligence. It can amplify productivity. It can amplify creativity.
But it can also amplify human blindness. And domination.
An AI system does not possess wisdom. It does not possess conscience. It does not possess humility. It simply pursues the goals it is given.
If a civilisation organised around domination creates increasingly powerful AI systems, those systems may become extraordinarily effective at helping that civilisation dominate. More efficient extraction. More sophisticated surveillance. More targeted manipulation. More concentrated wealth. More powerful weapons.
. . .
MASCULINE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI won’t all of a sudden become evil. The real danger is that AI becomes exceptionally good at helping humans pursue goals that were already destructive.
This is why the question of masculinity matters more deeply than it may first appear.
A civilisation organised around domination already possesses enormous power. Artificial intelligence may multiply that power. The systems humanity has created over centuries – financial systems, military systems, political systems, media systems and industrial systems – are beginning to acquire tools capable of operating at unprecedented speed and scale.
In war, AI is already being used to control drones. The future of warfare could soon involve armies of AI-controlled robots and the use of AI-enhanced chemical weapons, deadly bacteria, and nuclear bombs.
The challenge is no longer simply technological. It is cultural. It is moral. It is civilisational.
So the task of the Man of Earth is much larger than personal self-improvement. It is not merely about becoming a better husband, father, friend or citizen. It is about helping to create a masculine culture mature enough to wield immense power without destroying itself.
For the first time in history, humanity is developing tools capable of reshaping civilisation at planetary scale. If these tools are guided by domination, they may accelerate ecological breakdown, deepen inequality and concentrate power even further. If they are guided by relationship, responsibility and care for life, they may help humanity navigate one of the most difficult transitions it has ever faced.
The question is whether we can become wise quickly enough. AI will become the greatest amplifier humanity has ever created. What it amplifies depends on who we become.
The age of domination taught us how to acquire power. The age now emerging must learn how to live with that power.
The future will not be determined by artificial intelligence alone. It will be determined by the values, assumptions and stories we choose to place behind it.
That is why the journey described in this book actually matters. The Man of Earth is not seeking power over life. He is learning how to stand in service to life. In an age of immense technological power, that will become one of the most important tasks of all.
But, seriously, are men even prepared for the world modernity is creating?
. . .
THE FUTURE IS PREDICABLE
So here we are. The year is 2040. AI is no longer a novelty. It has moved from the screen into the structure of society.
It diagnoses disease. It manages logistics. It writes government briefs. It designs buildings. It prepares tax returns. It composes music for advertisements, films and political campaigns. It monitors crops, predicts demand, controls traffic, handles customer service, translates speech, teaches children, supports elderly people, analyses markets and produces reports faster than any human team could manage.
Robots have followed it into the physical world.
Warehouses are automated. Farms are watched by sensors and drones. Construction sites use machines that do not complain, do not tire, do not ask for overtime and do not join unions. They work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Delivery, cleaning, aged care, manufacturing and transport have all been reshaped.
At first, everyone said the same thing they always say when a new technology arrives: It will create more jobs than it destroys.
For a few people, that was actually true. There were new jobs for engineers, designers, data specialists, robotics technicians, machine supervisors, simulation architects and digital security experts. There were good jobs for those who already stood close to the centre of the new system.
But for millions of others, the promise did not arrive.
The ladder had been removed.
The entry-level job disappeared before the young man could step onto it. The apprenticeship was replaced by a robot company. The junior analyst was replaced by an AI agent. The office assistant was replaced by an electronic dashboard. The truck driver was told to consider early retirement or a job in tourism sector. The warehouse worker was told the future required ‘flexibility’. Flexible was the new word for disposable.
Governments responded, slowly at first, then in panic. They introduced new taxes on AI firms, robotics companies and data infrastructure. The names differed from country to country. Some called it a social dividend. Some called it a citizens’ income, participation payment, or Universal Basic Income. Others called it welfare and resented every dollar of it.
Whatever the name, the arrangement was simple enough.
The machines generate wealth. The state collects a portion of it. People receive enough to survive. Enough to stay fed, housed and quiet.
So by 2040, most people are no longer starving for bread. They are starving for meaning. And among men, that hunger is especially sharp.
For thousands of years, men had been told that their worth came from usefulness. A man was expected to hunt, fight, build, protect, provide, command, repair, compete and endure. The forms changed from century to century, but the underlying bargain remained.
Be useful, and you will be respected.
Be strong, and you will be needed.
Provide, and you will have a place in the world.
Then came this new world of AI in which usefulness itself was redesigned.
The machines could lift more, and faster. AI could remember and calculate more. The robot could work longer. The network algorithm could organise more efficiently. The digital assistant could answer faster. The automated platform could produce, distribute and optimise without asking what any of it meant.
A new question began to spread through society.
What is a man for, when the economy no longer needs him?
For some men, the answer became rage.
They turned against women and migrants, governments and intellectuals, climate activists and environmentalists, and anyone else who could be blamed for their loss of status.
They found digital tribes that told them the old story had been stolen from them. So a new type of leaders emerged who promised them the return of authority. Promised them revenge. These meaning-starved men were basically promised that their manhood would be restored through domination.
For other men, the answer became numbness. Days without rhythm. Nights without sleep. Bodies without movement. Minds fed by endless entertainment and doom scrolling. Desire without intimacy. Loneliness in silence.
The man would receive his money from the government and still feel useless. He had food in the fridge but still felt empty.
He had every digital pleasure available on his screens, and still he felt a painful sadness that life was passing him by.
Income and social security is not the same as purpose. The society that thinks income is the same as purpose makes a detrimental mistake.
A basic income for everyone who becomes unemployed may prevent destitution. It may even become one of the great humane achievements of the 21st century. But it cannot by itself answer the deeper human question:
Why am I here? What is my purpose?
For men, this question cuts close to the bone.
Because the old answer was work.
It might not always have been all that meaningful. Or healthy. But work provided structure. Work created identity. Work gave men a place to go, a task to perform, a hierarchy to navigate, a skill to improve, a reason to leave the house, a way to be seen. And an income on the bank account.
When that structure disintegrates, something else must take its place. But what?
This book is moving toward finding answers to that question.
The Man of Earth is not a nostalgic return to the past. He is not the old patriarch repainted in green. He is not a softer version of the same old provider. He is not a man who finds his worth only by being needed by the market, or desired by women.
He belongs to a different story.
A new story.
He understands that purpose is not handed down by an employer.
It is cultivated.
He understands that masculinity cannot remain dependent on domination, productivity or economic usefulness.
It must mature into service.
He understands that when machines become stronger, it doesn’t mean that a man’s purpose and strength is made obsolete.
It is simply called into another field.
In the world of 2040, the central male question may no longer be:
What do you do for a living?
It will be:
What do you give your life to?
That question cannot be answered by artificial intelligence.
It must be lived.
Contents
Notes for Man of Earth 6
The journey of this book 15
Beyond the binary 17
When masculinity gets amplified 20
My personal story 28
The long shadow of patriarchy 36
The biology inside of us 42
The core of dominance 50
The conquest of women and nature 57
The feminist rebellion 61
The dressed body 65
Men in the age of women 76
Man without a map 83
The Trobriands 95
The Bonobos 103
The great search 109
The search for the masculine 118
The lost initiation 122
The force of attraction 131
Finding your people 136
Being a man in an ecological age 140
Woman of Earth 147
From domination to mastery 154
From man to human 165
Architecture of renewal 173
Credits – and more to read 191
Further reading 192
About the author 198
Reflections
Where did you agree, disagree or feel challenged?
Which ideas or statements stayed with you after reading this?
Did this chapter remind you of anything in your own life?
What experiences, perspectives or examples would you add?
I read every comment and appreciate thoughtful disagreement as much as agreement. Thank you for being part of the conversation.
~ Mik
Share what your life looks like
Maybe you are a man who has already made a transition to a new place? Would you share with us some glimpses of what your life looks like on the other side?
It could be stories. Short stories of men crossing thresholds. A father learning to listen. A businessman discovering service. A farmer restoring land. A grandfather becoming an Elder. A young man sitting alone beneath the stars and recognising, perhaps for the first time, that he belongs to something larger than himself.
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