Discovery is the new surface of control.

The arrival of AI is making content effectively infinite and virtually free to produce.
Creation is no longer scarce.

What is scarce is relevance:
what you see, when you see it, and in what context.

Whoever controls discovery controls:
• belief formation
• coordination
• learning
• legitimacy

Control no longer needs censorship, it just needs ranking, delay, and distraction.

The danger is that we will end centralising onto one “best” AI or platform as we have done with Google.


A better outcome would be an environment where many discovery services compete for payment from users who value:
• contextual recommendations

• responsiveness to feedback

• restraint and accuracy

• silence when unsure

The key features are:

Payment per item prices error.

Exit preserves agency.

Competition prevents capture.
AI does the searching.

Humans decide what’s worth trusting.

Money records the outcome.
Not control.

Feedback.

That’s how the internet becomes a coordination tool instead of a manipulation machine.