Pharaoh then shares a second dream, which is essentially the same but involves seven healthy ears of grain and seven empty ears of grain. Joseph interprets these two dreams as a clear sign that Egypt will have seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. Joseph advises Pharaoh to appoint overseers to organize and establish reserves so that the people of Egypt will not perish during the famine. Pharaoh takes his advice, and appoints Joseph as Governor of Egypt.
Why is this interesting?
Thousands of years ago, prediction was thought to come from the heavens or dark magic. The exchange of knowledge was slow and error-prone. With ample wisdom, divine inspiration, or luck, a person might have brought themselves from prisoner to political leader in weeks. In this reading, we’re reminded—in very dramatic fashion—that no matter your circumstances, if you acquire the right knowledge and make the right predictions, you can improve your situation.
But does this lesson stand the test of time? We now live in a world where knowledge is exchanged nearly instantaneously on the Internet, and we’ve developed predictive systems (AI) that exceed humans in many classes of tasks. It’s clearer now than ever that our world is dictated by this same power, from politics to business to personal relationships.
Let’s take business, for example. Fundamentally, the most important businesses have made a bold, often contrarian prediction and turned out to be right. NVIDIA spent dozens of years developing chip architectures that seemed less lucrative and less relevant than their peers' products. Amazon spent billions developing a store for a nascent technology called the Internet that most people couldn’t have imagined would be the place we’d do most of our shopping. And Novo Nordisk funded Lotte Knudsen’s research on an obscure hormone GLP-1 for nearly 30 years before any drug hit the market. Make the right predictions, have the right knowledge, and you’ll amass a winning edge in the market.
Politics and war have shifted too. Political machines are run with polling and voter research before elections, and access to the most real-time news and intelligence after the elections. War has shifted from a theater of people and their supply chains to a game of drones, intelligence gathering, and cyberwarfare. You no longer win because you have the best political policies or the largest army. You win because you bet on and play the right macro trend, you gather the best information, and you demonstrate technological prowess over your opponent.
But here’s where I think this power really hits me: our personal relationships and our own psychology are dictated by these same rules. Just like Pharaoh entrusted Joseph nearly overnight because he made the right prediction and possessed the right knowledge, I and many others have entrusted technology in place of people in just a couple years. Two years ago, the idea of seeking medical or legal advice online was nearly a meme. WebMD or Rocket Lawyer may not have been trusted for anything serious. Today, I jump straight to ChatGPT or Gemini when I have a medical or legal question, before consulting a professional. When you’re facing a tough personal issue, you might check Reddit to see how others handled the same situation, before asking a mentor or community leader. Before, you’d make friends by proximity or convenience, and be influenced by their interests or opinions. Today, your interests and opinions are measured by online services and used to feed you content or connections that you’ll find most engaging. All of these have superficial benefits, but there are clear risks with replacing many of the human relationship-based knowledge gathering and pattern matching, even if they are inferior in performance to computers.
Simply put, technology is the ultimate tool for the exchange of information and for prediction. And technology’s transformation is only accelerating at the national, corporate, and personal levels. Just as Pharaoh was right to consider Joseph’s prediction and shift his plans, we should develop and use these tools for the benefit of humankind. And just as Joseph selflessly served his adopted nation, his family, and neighboring peoples with this power, we should find ways to leverage technology, especially the Internet and AI, to benefit all peoples, not just a lucky few.
