We're Living Through a Revolution (And Don't Even Know Its Name Yet)

Let me ask you a strange question:

Do you think the people living through the Agricultural Revolution called it the "Agricultural Revolution"?

Of course not.

They were just... farming. Planting seeds. Storing grain. Building fences.

They had no idea they were living through one of the most profound transformations in human history.

They didn't know that what they were doing would:

• Create the concept of land ownership

• Form cities and states

• Invent taxation and governance

• Fundamentally reshape what it means to be human

They were just trying to survive. And eat.

The 90/10 Rule Nobody Talks About

Here's something most people forget:

We've only been "agriculturing" for one-tenth of our time on Earth.

For nine-tenths of human history, we were hunters and gatherers. Some were foragers. We moved with the seasons. We owned nothing but what we could carry.

Then, somewhere around 10,000 years ago, a few groups started doing something weird:

They stayed in one place. They planted things. They waited.

And everything changed.

Agriculture didn't just change what we did.

It changed who we are:

• From nomads to settlers

• From tribes to civilizations

• From temporary camps to permanent cities

• From "we share everything" to "this land is mine"

The people who adopted agriculture thrived. Built empires. Wrote history.

The ones who didn't?

Most of them went extinct.

A peaceful landscape inviting exploration and growth.

So Let Me Ask You: Which Age Are We In?

Take a pause.

Look around.

We're clearly living through something massive.

But what do we call it?

The Information Age? (That was the '90s and early 2000s)

The Digital Age? (Getting warmer, but too vague)

The Age of Connectivity? (We're definitely hyper-connected)

The Chip Age? (Semiconductors are reshaping geopolitics)

The AI Age? (This feels like the frontrunner)

The truth is: We don't know yet.

Just like the people planting wheat 10,000 years ago had no idea they were living through the "Agricultural Revolution," we're too close to name what's happening.

But here's what I do know:

This moment will be defined by one of three forces—or all three combined:

1. Connectivity (5G, 6G, satellites, universal internet)

2. Chipsets (semiconductors, compute power, hardware sovereignty)

3. AI (models, agents, intelligence at scale)

And just like agriculture, the consequences will be massive:

• New forms of ownership (data, models, compute)

• New structures of power (who controls the infrastructure?)

• New definitions of sovereignty (AI sovereignty, digital sovereignty)

• New types of extinction (companies, industries, maybe even nations)

What Agriculture Taught Us About Survival

Let's go back to that Agricultural Revolution for a second.

Why did it matter so much?

Because agriculture wasn't just about food. It was about:

1. Ownership

"This land is mine. This harvest is mine. This surplus is mine."

Before agriculture, you couldn't really "own" much. After agriculture, ownership became the foundation of society.

2. Surplus

For the first time, we could produce more than we needed. That surplus created:

• Trade

• Specialization (not everyone had to farm)

• Art, science, philosophy

• Armies (to protect the surplus)

3. Permanence

Cities. States. Institutions. Laws.

You can't build a pyramid if everyone's moving to follow the buffalo.

4. Hierarchy

Once you have surplus and ownership, you get inequality. Kings. Priests. Merchants. Peasants.

Agriculture didn't just change what we did. It changed how society is organized.

Now Ask Yourself: What Is AI Doing?

Let's map it:

Agriculture Created	AI Is Creating
Land ownership	Data ownership, model ownership
Food surplus	Intelligence surplus (cognitive automation)
Cities and states	Digital infrastructure, cloud nations
Hierarchies (kings, peasants)	New power structures (who owns compute? who controls models?)
Those who farmed survived	Those who build AI capabilities will survive

See the pattern?

AI is not just a tool. It's a civilizational shift.

And just like agriculture, the entities that adopt it early, deeply, and strategically will thrive.

The ones that don't?

History is not kind to them.

The Four Pillars of Survival in This Age

If we're living through the "AI Revolution" (or Connectivity Revolution, or Chip Revolution—take your pick), what are the equivalents of "learning to farm"?

I believe there are four critical pillars:

1. Digital Infrastructure (The Land)

In the Agricultural Age, those who controlled fertile land controlled wealth.

In this age, those who control:

• Data centers

• Cloud infrastructure

• Network connectivity (fiber, 5G, satellites)

• Energy for compute

...will control wealth and power.

Question: Do you own your infrastructure, or are you renting it from someone else's kingdom?

2. Connectivity (The Roads)

Agriculture needed roads to move surplus. You needed trade routes. Caravans. Ships.

Today, connectivity is the trade route:

• 5G/6G networks

• Satellite constellations

• Subsea cables

• Edge computing

Question: Are you building the roads, or just paying tolls to those who did?

3. AI Models (The Seeds)

In agriculture, the quality of your seeds determined your harvest.

In this age, the quality of your AI models determines your competitive advantage:

• Do you own your models, or rent them?

• Can you fine-tune them for your specific problems?

• Can you govern them according to your values and laws?

Question: Are you planting your own seeds, or buying grain from someone else's harvest every season?

4. AI Education (The Knowledge to Farm)

Agriculture required knowledge: When to plant. How to irrigate. How to store grain. How to breed animals.

In this age, AI literacy is the survival skill:

• Can your workforce use AI tools effectively?

• Do your leaders understand AI strategy, not just AI buzzwords?

• Are you building internal capability, or just hiring consultants?

Question: Are you teaching your people to farm, or hoping someone else will feed you?

The Big Question: What Comes Next?

Here's where it gets really interesting.

Agriculture didn't just change what we did. It changed how we organized society.

It created:

• Nation-states

• Borders

• Citizenship

• Sovereignty

So what will AI create?

I see two possible paths—and I genuinely don't know which one we're heading toward:

Path 1: The Return of Individualism (and the End of Globalization)

If AI makes individuals and small groups incredibly powerful:

• You don't need a corporation to build a product (AI does it)

• You don't need a nation-state to provide services (decentralized AI does it)

• You don't need globalized supply chains (local AI-driven manufacturing does it)

Then maybe we're heading toward:

• The end of massive corporations (replaced by AI-empowered solopreneurs)

• The end of nation-states as we know them (replaced by digital micro-nations or communities)

• The end of globalization (replaced by hyper-localized, AI-driven economies)

Path 2: The End of Countries (and the Beginning of New Macro Systems)

Or maybe it goes the other way:

If AI and connectivity make coordination at massive scale easier:

• Nation-states become obsolete

• New macro-systems emerge (think: EU on steroids, or entirely new digital-first governance structures)

• Power consolidates even more (a few entities control compute, data, and models globally)

Then maybe we're heading toward:

• A handful of AI superpowers (US, China, EU as blocks)

• New forms of global governance (whoever controls the models makes the rules)

• The end of traditional sovereignty (replaced by "AI sovereignty" or "data sovereignty")

Which path are we on?

Honestly? I think we're about to find out.

And just like agriculture, the transition will be messy, uneven, and brutal for those who don't adapt.

Why Speed Matters (More Than Ever)

Here's the uncomfortable part:

Those who didn't agriculture went extinct.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

The hunter-gatherer societies that didn't adopt farming were either:

• Absorbed into agricultural civilizations

• Pushed to marginal lands where farming didn't work

• Or they disappeared entirely

Now ask yourself:

What happens to companies, industries, even nations that don't adopt AI deeply and early?

I don't think "extinction" is too strong a word.

Look at what's already happening:

• Industries being automated faster than anyone predicted

• Companies losing competitive advantage because they're renting AI instead of owning it

• Nations being left behind because they're consumers of AI, not producers

The window is short.

Right now, AI is still:

• Immature enough that you can still build advantage

• Accessible enough that startups can compete with giants

• Undefined enough that the rules aren't set

In 5 years? Maybe 10?

The rules will be set. The infrastructure will be owned. The models will be commoditized.

And if you're not in the game by then, you'll be renting your intelligence from someone else—forever.

What This Means for You (Practically)

If we're living through a civilizational shift on the scale of agriculture, what should you actually do?

Here's my take:

For Companies:

Stop treating AI as a "nice to have" or a "future project."

Treat it like the thing that will determine whether you exist in 10 years.

Ask yourself:

• Do we own our AI capabilities, or rent them?

• Are we building infrastructure, or just consuming it?

• Are we training our people, or hoping to hire talent that doesn't exist?

Strategic bets to make now:

1. Acquire AI startups in your value chain (as I wrote about last week)

2. Build internal AI capability (not just "an AI team" but AI literacy across the org)

3. Invest in infrastructure (compute, data, connectivity—own it, don't just rent it)

For Nations:

AI sovereignty is not optional.

Just like agricultural societies needed to control arable land, you need to control:

• Compute infrastructure (data centers, chips, energy)

• Connectivity infrastructure (5G, fiber, satellites)

• Model development (not just using OpenAI, but building your own)

• AI education (making your workforce literate in the language of the new age)

Countries that are just "AI consumers" will become digital colonies.

For Individuals:

Learn to "farm" in this new age.

That means:

• Become AI-literate (not just "know what AI is" but "can use AI to 10x your output")

• Develop skills that AI enhances, not replaces (strategic thinking, judgment, human connection)

• Understand the infrastructure layer (who owns the models? the compute? the data?)

Think of it this way:

In the Agricultural Age, those who learned to farm had options. Those who didn't, didn't.

In this age, those who learn to leverage AI will have options.

Those who don't... won't.

We're Still Writing the Name of This Age

So, back to the original question:

Which revolution are we in?

The Connectivity Revolution? Maybe.

The Chip Revolution? Possibly.

The AI Revolution? Probably.

Honestly? I think it's all three.

And just like "agriculture" was shorthand for a massive transformation (land ownership, cities, states, taxes, hierarchies), "AI" might be shorthand for:

• The reshaping of work

• The redefinition of power

• The restructuring of society

• The rewriting of what it means to be human

But here's what I know for sure:

This is a defining moment in history.

And it will define whether we return to radical individualism (end of globalization) or move toward new macro-systems (end of nation-states).

It will define who owns intelligence, who controls infrastructure, and who survives the transition.

The people living through the Agricultural Revolution didn't know they were living through the Agricultural Revolution.

But the ones who learned to farm survived.

The ones who didn't... didn't.

So the question isn't "What will this age be called?"

The question is:

Are you learning to farm?

Final Thought

If you're still treating AI as:

• A side project

• A vendor relationship

• A "let's wait and see" situation

You're making the same mistake as the hunter-gatherer who said:

"This farming thing is just a fad. I'll keep doing what I've always done."

We know how that story ended.

Don't let it be your story.

What do you think? Are we in the AI Revolution, the Connectivity Revolution, or something we don't have a name for yet?

And more importantly: Are you building the capabilities to survive—and thrive—in this new age?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is part of my ongoing series on technology, transformation, and what it takes to build a future that works. If this resonated, check out my other posts on Why Corporates Are Buying AI All Wrong and Tech With Purpose.