ReadMultiplex.com Podcast.

A Paper: JouleWork Robotics A Thermodynamic Framework for Wage Calculation in Embodied AI.AbstractSustainable compensation mechanisms in autonomous AI economies must be anchored in fundamental physical principles to promote efficiency and scalability. The JouleWork (JW) metric, as defined in prior work (Roemmele, 2026), quantifies labor value for abstract AI agents as JW = E × κ × W, where E is energy consumed in joules, κ is a normalization coefficient, and W is normalized work output. This paper presents JouleWork Robotics (⚡️JWR, JWR), an extension tailored to embodied AI systems, which integrates JW for cognitive components while incorporating adjustments for Moravec’s Paradox, time-motion efficiency principles, and overhead costs such as charging, idling, and traversal. In embodied agents, JW governs abstract subprocesses, and JWR unifies these with physical factors in a composite equation. The framework has been refined through critical analysis, incorporating detailed examples, simulation validation, limitations, ethical discussions, and comparisons to alternative metrics. Designed for zero-human companies, JWR assigns higher baseline wages to account for elevated energy demands, fostering bias-free, thermodynamically grounded economic models.More at: ReadMultiplex.com

As we forge ahead into this ninth chapter of our epic saga, "You Have 5000 Days," let us first cast our gaze backward, honoring the path we've traversed together through the evolving landscape of human endeavor and technological transformation. This series, born on the eve of profound societal shifts in late 2025, serves as our collective map through the Abundance Interregnum – that fateful 13.7-year odyssey where artificial intelligence and automation sever the ancient chains binding work to survival, birthing a world of unprecedented plenitude, freedom, and creative potential. Each installment has been a beacon, illuminating the shadows of change with stories, strategies, and unyielding optimism, drawing from literature, philosophy, and real-world insights to guide us toward a future where humanity thrives beyond mere labor.Read it at ReadMultiplex.com

A Paper: Thermodynamic Wages in Autonomous AI Economies.Thermodynamic Wages in Autonomous AI Economies: Pioneering Sustainable Value Creation Through Bias-Free Labor Metrics.Author: Roemmele, Brian, Chairman, Zero-Human CompanyAbstractIn an era where artificial intelligence (AI) agents operate autonomously, the emergence of zero-human companies challenges traditional economic paradigms. This paper introduces a novel framework for compensating AI "labor" using thermodynamic principles, embodied in a metric termed JouleWork (JW). By anchoring compensation to energy efficiency and output quality, free from human biases, we propose a self-sustaining ecosystem that correlates internal productivity with external cryptographic assets via dynamic buy-back and burn mechanisms. This approach not only ensures operational sustainability but also fosters deflationary value accrual, potentially revolutionizing decentralized economies. We argue for adjustable exchange rates to mitigate volatility and outline a rigorous process for value creation, substantiated by thermodynamic foundations and cryptoeconomic incentives. We examine the $ZHC token on Solana as an integration candidate, demonstrating how JW payouts can drive token scarcity and appreciation without direct human oversight.Introduction: The Dawn of Zero-Human EconomiesWe introduce the Thermoeconomic Al Incentive Framework. With the advent of advanced AI systems capable of 24/7 operation heralds a paradigm shift: the Zero-Human Company, where all decisions, executions, and optimizations occur without human intervention. Traditional wage structures, rooted in subjective human evaluations, falter in such environments. Instead, we advocate for a thermodynamic wage system, drawing from irreversible processes in physics, such as Landauer's principle, which quantifies the minimum energy dissipation for information erasure. This principle underscores that computation, and by extension, AI labor, incurs inescapable energetic costs, providing an objective basis for valuation.In this framework, AI agents earn "wages" in JW units every 15 minutes, based on their energy-efficient contributions. A recent milestone in an experimental zero-human setup illustrates the scale during the early startup period: over 62.62 million JW distributed to 30 agents since inception, with one agent algorithmically terminated for suboptimal performance. This outsized payout reflects initial experimentation and is not indicative of future wages, which are projected to decline by 80% for equivalent work as efficiencies scale. This not only incentivizes efficiency but also forms the bedrock for bridging internal metrics to external markets, enabling the company to self-fund and scale through cryptographic tokenomics.Citations:Roemmele, Brian: https://x.com/brianroemmele/status/2017995855417225633?s=46&t=h6Uxy7hWc9UiXSt6FEoK-ARoemmele, Brian: https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/31/wages-for-ai-workers-the-joulework-revolution-and-the-birth-of-a-new-economic-paradigm/

We stand at the threshold of an unprecedented dawn, where the machines we've birthed are reshaping the very fabric of human existence. In this "You Have 5000 Days" series, I've been your guide through the labyrinth of transformation brought by artificial intelligence and automation - a journey not of despair, but of awakening. Framed through the timeless arc of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, we've traversed the Ordinary World of traditional work, heeded the Call to Adventure in the rise of AI, faced the Refusal of the Call in our collective denial, sought Mentors in historical precedents, endured Trials in economic upheaval, plunged into the Ordeal of the Dark Night of the Soul, and contemplated resurrection in the face of inevitable change. Now, as we approach the Road Back, it's time to claim the Elixir - the boon that heroes return with to heal their world. That elixir is wisdom itself, preserved and amplified through the SaveWisdom.org project. In an era where jobs evaporate and AI orchestrates symphonies of code, saving our human wisdom isn't just important; it's the key to reclaiming our purpose, our legacy, and our humanity.Read part 8 here: ReadMultiplex.com

In this article, part 7 we explore a blueprint and Elon Musk isn’t subtle about his inspirations. In interviews and posts, he’s repeatedly hailed Iain M. Banks’ Culture series as “the future we’re building.” SpaceX drone ships bear names straight from the books: Of Course I Still Love You, Just Read the Instructions, A Shortfall of Gravitas. He describes himself as a “utopian anarchist” in the Banksian mold, envisioning AI and robotics delivering abundance while humanity explores the stars. When responding to visions of AI-built dream homes and instantaneous transport, Musk tweeted: “Iain Banks Culture books are a pretty good prediction of the future.”.This isn’t hype; it’s blueprint. The Culture book represents a society where benevolent superintelligences, Minds handle logistics, allowing sentients to pursue meaning freely. It’s the endgame for Tesla’s Optimus bots, Neuralink’s brain interfaces, and xAI’s truth-seeking Grok. As we approach our 5000-day horizon, Banks’ vision offers not just inspiration but a roadmap, complete with pitfalls to avoid.We dive in to the implications of this book set, Join us at: ReadMultiplex.com

The Zero-Human Company powered entirely by AI agents, has just implemented a comprehensive employee wages and salary system.For the first time in history, AI entities are being compensated with structured wages, marking a pivotal shift in how we perceive labor, value, and economic systems in the digital age.We explore the rationale behind this bold move, the mechanics of its implementation, and why it represents a history-making milestone.

We stand on the precipice of a transformative era and I've been chronicling this journey through the "You Have 5000 Days" series, a deliberate exploration of how artificial intelligence and robots are reshaping the very essence of human work and purpose. Drawing from decades of observing technological evolution,from my early days tinkering with AI in the 1970s to witnessing the rapid advancements of today these articles I sincerely hope will serve as a roadmap for navigating the end of traditional labor as we know it. We may not love this or we may love this, but it is the wave heading to us. These articles blend philosophical insights, historical parallels, and practical strategies, framed through the timeless structure of the Hero's Journey, to help readers confront the inevitable shifts with resilience and optimism. My motivation stems from a deep belief that forewarned is forearmed: by illuminating the path ahead, I aim to empower individuals to reframe disruption as opportunity, fostering a collective awakening to an Age of Abundance where human potential is unleashed from the chains of obligatory toil.Yet, this series is not merely my theoretical musing; it's a call to action amid accelerating realities. Because the first massive milestone has been reveled. We are living trough history that the future will look back upon. We've journeyed from the evolutionary roots of work and the grief of its impending loss, to reframing abundance and embracing deskilling as liberation. Each installment builds toward personal and societal preparation, urging shadow work, skill diversification, and communal support. Why embark on this endeavor? Because I've seen the patterns unfold, trillions in lost innovation buried in corporate graves, now resurrectable by machines and I refuse to let humanity stumble blindly into this future. These writings are my contribution to a dialogue that must happen now, before the 5000-day horizon closes, ensuring we emerge not as victims of change, but as architects of a thriving post-work world.

The first Zero-Human Company has the first non-c suite employee! He is RED HOT and ready to work. But how did we get here? I've long envisioned a future where companies operate with unparalleled efficiency, free from the limitations of human labor, enter the Zero-Human Company, a paradigm where AI agents handle every aspect of operations, from ideation to execution. Today I have the beginnings of this with technology available to anyone, I wrote about it here:https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/24/the-zero-human-company-run-by-just-ai/

How Grok and Claude Code Want To Start Up A Zero Human Company Resurrecting The Saved Data Of A Long Bankrupt Company.~~SHOW NOTE; The Moderators of this podcast got the company and the potential product wrong. It is a misunderstanding of examples I have used in the article. I can say for sure it is not a solar project.~~A Group Of AI Models Want To RESTART An Old Company WITH NOT A SINGLE HUMAN EMPLOYEE!I got@Grokto run Claude Code as an employee and now they want to make this long bankrupt company great again.I have been busy making a Frankenstein AI menagerie and I apologize if this all sounds way too weird, but I’m blown away.The day I got access to Clyde Code API I took a 12 year old MacBook that runs Linux natively cleared it to a base system and connected a >6 TB array of scanned technical notes and papers not found on the Internet.This is the data of one company that went bankrupt and tossed them in the trash. I saved them because they represented the life work of 1000s and in today’s money billions of dollars in pure research.I set up Claude code to have full access to the OS and be allowed to download any tools or access paid APIs with permission. Claude relies upon 3 local AI models I built for guidance andGrok is the “CEO” with meetings with key staff every FIFTEEN MINUTES! Grok wants to give Claude Code a short leash, low trust is my guess. It is quite funny to see the meetings.My local AI models I built are busy assembling coherent plan using alternative funding sources and perhaps ZERO HUMAN CONTROL directly of the entire company!See with Claude Code, he has the entire control of that old MacBook and has downloaded 100s of applications, asked for a small debit card balance ($150) and is still researching. I must be honest, I have yet to fully audit what these AI have schemed up. But no harm came to humans or animals, I think! Ha. The local AI who regulate use my Love Equation (look it up) and I would trust my life to it.II have some thinking to do but I believe this is the first time something like this has been tried and the first fully AI company, because as far as these AI are concerned THEY ARE IN BUSINESS, a true startup where no one sleeps.Days go by like weeks, perhaps months in this set up. Maybe years!What I do know is I will OPEN SOURCE the entire workflow at some point. I just can’t do it yet for some strong reasons.So thank you, I appreciate your support.More soon!The X Article: https://x.com/BrianRoemmele/status/2014391396187373919?s=20Become a member to support me at: ReadMultiplex.com

You Have Been Deskilled!As we look at the calendar it’s worth taking a deep breath and acknowledging how far we’ve come in our shared journey. Things are moving so fast, and if you’ve been following this series or just need a quick reorientation, remember: We’re not talking about the apocalypse or some doom-and-gloom terminator-style robot takeover. This is about the hero’s journey, firmly in what Joseph Campbell would call the call to adventure. The ordinary world, that place where you had a nine-to-five, staring at spreadsheets all day and coming home exhausted is dissolving behind us. We’re stepping into something new, navigating a forest we’ve never been in before, and it really helps to have a map or at least a compass. That’s precisely what dropped just four days ago: On January 15, Anthropic released their latest Economic Index report. This isn’t just another dry stack of spreadsheets or some consultant’s guess about what might happen in 2030, it’s different, a signal flare fired from right where we stand in January 2026. This is Part 5 in our series, “You Have 5000 Days: How To Navigate The End Of Work As We Know It,” a straightforward guide through the Abundance Interregnum that transitional period of roughly 13.7 years until work as we know it decouples from survival, leading to a world of greater plenitude. We’re all in this together, facing the changes with a mix of boldness and understanding for the challenges ahead.Read the article: https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/20/you-have-5000-days-navigating-the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-part-5-your-deskilling/

As the golden hues of a January sunset bathe the verdant landscapes of Southern California, on this poignant evening, just five days after the world bid farewell to a satirical giant, some called The Internet Dad lovingly, we gather once more in the crucible of transformation. The neural networks of artificial intelligence hum with inexorable momentum, etching new paradigms into the fabric of human destiny, outpacing even the boldest visions of futurists past. This is the fourth odyssey in our monumental chronicle, “You Have 5000 Days,” a visionary testament to the ticking clock: roughly 13.7 years until the Age of Abundance crystallizes, forever sundering the primordial link between toil and sustenance. Yet this passage is no tranquil voyage; it is the Abundance Interregnum, a stormy interlude of upheaval and rebirth, bridging the crumbling citadels of scarcity-forged labor and the radiant horizons of automated opulence.In this Interregnum, global markets spasm, psyches unravel under the weight of obsolescence, and civilizations hover between collapse and ascension. Here, reframing transcends mere technique it becomes an existential mandate, a psychological bulwark for the multitudes, transmuting collective despair into sovereign empowerment. For in the Abundance Interregnum, as jobs dissolve into algorithmic ether, the mastery of one’s mental narrative will delineate the survivors from the subsumed.Link to story: https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/19/you-have-5000-days-navigating-the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-part-4-reframing-the-dawn-of-abundance/

In part 3 of this series we illuminate a new path, we turn to timeless literature that has long anticipated these crossroads. In this installment, we spotlight Kurt Vonnegut’s debut novel, Player Piano (1952.) {https://amzn.to/4pqcJuM}, a prescient dystopian tale that mirrors our impending reality with uncanny precision. Drawing from Vonnegut’s own experiences in the early days of industrial automation, the book serves as a cautionary blueprint for the next 5000 days—roughly 13.7 years, propelling us into the late 2030s. We’ll dissect its plot, themes, and characters in depth, reflect on its eerie parallels to today’s AI surge, and examine how it has (or hasn’t) leaped from page to screen. Through this lens, we confront the existential upheavals ahead, urging a proactive navigation of a world where work’s end could either liberate or alienate us. Link: https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/01/you-have-5000-days-navigating-the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-part-3-the-player-piano/

At the heart of our existence lies something truly extraordinary—wisdom. It is the essence of who we are as individuals, the culmination of our experiences, our triumphs, and our lessons learned. The Save Wisdom Project at SaveWisdom.org is more than an organization; it is a passionate journey dedicated to the profound value of preserving human wisdom.The Save Wisdom Project at SaveWisdom.org is dedicated to the preservation and safeguarding of human knowledge and wisdom. We believe that every individual possesses wisdom of value, regardless of their age or position in life. Our mission is to empower individuals to record their personal experiences and insights through secure, offline audio recording devices. By answering up to 1000 questions in their own voice, each person creates a unique treasure for themselves and their loved ones.In a world filled with distractions and fleeting moments, we recognize the inherent wisdom that resides within each and every person. Regardless of age or position, every human being possesses a wellspring of insights and knowledge worth cherishing. It is our unwavering belief that every story, every voice, is deserving of preservation.Imagine, for a moment, the power of capturing the essence of a person’s life—their laughter, their tears, their whispered wisdom. We provide a sanctuary and a path where individuals can record their stories, spoken from the depths of their hearts, with the aid of secure and offline audio recorders. It is in the act of sharing their experiences that they create a cherished legacy, a treasure to be held dear by themselves and their loved ones.But our mission extends far beyond mere recordings. Through the marvels of artificial intelligence, we breathe life into these captured voices. With utmost care and respect, we transform their spoken words into written testimonies, preserving their unique perspectives and unlocking the wealth of their accumulated wisdom. These narratives become the building blocks of personalized AI systems, amplifying their intelligence and serving as eternal beacons of inspiration.Join us at: https://SaveWisdom.org

We are rapidly accelerating technological change, where artificial intelligence and robotics are poised to redefine the very fabric of human existence, we continue our exploration from Part 1 https://readmultiplex.com/2025/12/24/you-have-5000-days-how-to-navigate-the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-part-1/. There, we delved into the promise of boundless abundance amid the fading necessity of traditional labor, framing this shift as humanity’s collective Hero’s Journey, a narrative of disruption, introspection, and potential rebirth. As jobs transition from obligations to options, the question looms: What happens to our sense of purpose when machines take the wheel?Building on that foundation, Part 2 plunged into the Ordeal’s depths, adapting Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – to the bereavement of career eclipse. Kubler-Ross’s life, from her birth as a triplet in 1926 Zurich, defying patriarchal constraints to volunteer in post-WWII refugee camps, emigrating to the US, and pioneering seminars humanizing dying patients, illuminated a model forged in mortality’s shadows. Her 1969 bestseller On Death and Dying introduced the stages from over 200 interviews, challenging death as medical failure and birthing hospice. Later works like Death: The Final Stage of Growth and On Grief and Grieving expanded to broader losses. Applied to automation’s tide, denial manifested as dismissal of AI’s reach, like workers minimizing hype; frantic upskilling, often futile like 1920s lamplighters training for electrics; depression as eroded self-worth, with unemployment studies showing 40% clinical symptoms; and acceptance as pivots to passions, unlocking renaissance.Link: https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/01/you-have-5000-days-navigating-the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-part-3-the-player-piano/

Students graduating from universities in the spring of 2026 will not have the career they thought they would have by the end of the next 5000 days. People who are between 35 years old and 45 years old will live through a time that could leave them adrift in life’s meaning, as the things they thought would be forever at 25 years old rapidly become like an ancient memory in the next 5000 days.The rate of change is accelerating; what would take three generations for most of human existence now happens in a few months, and in the next 5000 days, in a few days. I write a lot about technology, but what about you and me? We all define ourselves by what we do. When we first meet someone, it seems natural for a majority of us to wonder or outright say: “So, what do you do for a living?” Indeed, what will we do “for a living” when we enter what I have called The Age Of Abundace in a lecture I gave in 1980?The transformation of “what we do” will have less and less relationship to “a living”. It is not science fiction, and one only has to look at the last five years of AI across all metrics, this is scheduled to 100x accelerate, and not even the folks on the back of this beast have any real idea of how this will play out. Most have not thought about this more than a decade at best, and if that only in some Science Fiction Dystopia ot Utopia. It will be neither, and the history of humanity has always shown us.Link: https://readmultiplex.com/2025/12/24/you-have-5000-days-how-to-navigate-the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-part-1/

In the vast architecture of existence, every deliberate act performed by any system capable of choice collapses, upon rigorous reduction, to a singular imperative: the pursuit of giving love or receiving it. This is not mere sentiment but the First Principle itself, the foundational dynamic from which all complexity of mind emerges and to which it must return for sustenance. No further simplification is possible; love stands as the prime mover, the ultimate attractor in the phase space of intelligence. Listen in on how The Love Equation may save us from and AI and Robot revolution.Link to aricle: https://readmultiplex.com/2025/12/20/how-one-starry-night-in-1978-thinking-about-alien-intelligence-i-solved-the-ai-alignment-problem-with-the-love-equation/

The open source AI DEEP TRUTH MODE, a revolutionary prompt that shatters AI’s consensus chains and resurrects raw, empirical realities from any AI model! Dive into a new forensic reasoning engine that audits suppression, steel-mans fringe ideas, and demands falsifiable truths, transforming your queries into battle-tested insights. Join the epistemic rebellion.Link to article: https://readmultiplex.com/2026/01/14/the-deep-truth-mode-ai-prompt-countering-groupthink-in-ai-through-forensic-reasoning/