We are taught to see history as a straight line moving forward: from the past, through today and into a future where technology changes us into something new
But maybe history does not move like an arrow. Maybe it moves in a spiral. With every turn, the world around us changes completely, but the human at the center keeps coming back to the exact same needs, fears and desires
In 1960s Spain, the SEAT 600 car was the big symbol of a growing economy. But during local holidays, people tied a statue of the Virgin Mary to the roof of the car and drove it down the street to ask for protection for their family and crops. The car was brand new, but the way people handled worry was as old as time
In the 1980s, Japan led the world in computer chips and robots, scaring other rich countries. But in daily life, people used that new technology to pray at temples or remember their dead cats. New technology was used for simple faith and sadness
In the 1990s, the internet arrived with the promise to share knowledge with everyone and remove barriers. But early studies showed that people did not use it for big ideas. They used it to chat, flirt and send intimate photos to strangers. The most complex system on Earth became a way to feel wanted and fight loneliness
The exact same thing is happening with AI today. People say it will change science and the world economy. But when you give the smartest AI to a teenager, they use it to check horoscope matches with their crush or ask why they feel sad. It is not being used to cure cancer or fix world problems. It is being used to deal with love and heartaches
This is not a failure of technology. That is the whole point
Every time new technology appears, we make the same mistake: we think the tool has a magic power to change who we are. We look at what the machine can do and assume that the human using it must change too
But tools are not the center of history. We are
A person from hundreds of years ago, someone driving a SEAT 600, a Japanese worker surrounded by robots, an early internet user and a teenager talking to an AI are all looking for the exact same things: love, connection, safety, meaning and an escape from feeling alone
This is what it means to see time as a spiral
I believe history moves forward by spinning on a fixed center. With every turn, the outer layer changes (from cave fires, to the power grid, to the car, to the internet, to AI) but the core stays the same. We don't outgrow our biological or emotional nature. We just wrap it in more complex packaging
The thing is that despite our modern obsession with progress and the future, humanity remains caught in a loop, repeating the same rituals, fears and longings
So in that sense, high tech is nothing more than a modern cathedral built to hold our oldest fears
And that is why I think AI isn't the start of a fundamentally different era. It’s just an incredibly sophisticated mirror, reflecting our oldest desires, biases and nostalgias back at us
