Native to Our Built Environments

Values have become the true operating system of successful tools—they provide the context and purpose that make capabilities meaningful.

This tension is everywhere: ChatGPT is an immensely powerful learning tool, but it has also led to students learning less in the classroom. Solana has changed user expectations around speed and data interoperability, but its lack of values has led to an abundance of degeneracy.

French philosopher Bruno Latour explored this phenomenon through the lens of Actor-Network Theory. He argued that both human and non-human actors (such as technologies) interact within networks, each influencing the other to shape the network itself. Jad Esber builds on Latour, arguing that "agency emerges in the 'in-between' — in the relationships and interactions between people and the technology they use."

The world is more malleable than ever. This moment demands that we approach product development not just as a technical challenge, but as a fundamental reimagining of how human capability and purpose can be amplified through technology.

However, the design of a product alone cannot dictate its impact on society and its users.

But with great power comes great responsibility. Technologists – those people that shape our environments in an increasingly digital world – can no longer dodge that responsibility. So let's define it:

The responsibility of technologists is to increase user agency by building tools and networks that not only empower individuals with capabilities but also align them around core values. Great technologists do not merely ship products; they cultivate networks of aligned participants who build upon the worldview the technologist provides.

Three categories of "agentic infrastructure" will define the era:

• Creation Tools: Tools that close the gap between imagination and action, enabling increasingly direct expression of human intent and the cultivation of creativity (e.g. Cursor, Midjourney, Obsidian, etc.).

• Vertical Agents: AI agents and automations designed for specific roles and domains, augmenting human capability in practical ways (e.g. Devin, Harvey, Clay, etc.).

• Open Networks & Protocols: New infrastructure for coordination and connection that enables emergent forms of collaboration and value creation (e.g. Ethereum, Farcaster, Uniswap, etc.).

With each of these buckets, our responsibility as builders are taken to the extreme: either we build with a specific vision and a high level of intentionality (thereby increasing user agency), or we build slop. A great example of the latter is AI SDR agents (bucket two) that promise to "replace outbound sales" with no consideration for what type of world this "infinite conversation" creates.

The environments we build today will become the native habitats of others, and it is the worldviews embedded in these environments that determine whether they enhance or diminish human agency. Success isn't measured in user numbers or engagement metrics, but in how effectively our technologies enable networks that make purposeful action feel natural and easy.

The product becomes an artifact of the scene rather than vice versa.

But values are spread through interaction. The primary value creation mechanism in modern technology isn't the tool itself, but the scene it creates—the emergent network of aligned users who use and build around the product.