The writer is a systems engineer and author of ‘Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World’
GLP-1 drugs and GPT models share an unsettling kinship. Each promises to dissolve friction so thoroughly that we forget it was ever there. One rewires how the body registers hunger; the other turns inklings into instant expertise. Both reveal how reflexively we welcome the removal of resistance and how rarely we ask which kinds deserve to stay.
In the history of friction-removal, physical toil fell first. Washing machines erased scrubbing while plumbing and thermostats ended the hauling of water and tending of fire. Then came bureaucratic easing: e-filing, direct deposit, money transfers and online flight check-in all swept away the drags that breed inefficiency.