Ask A Genius 1386: I Disruption: Comparing Historical Crises, Future Faking, and Societal Misconceptions in a Changing World
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/16
Rick Rosner is an accomplished television writer with credits on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Crank Yankers, and The Man Show. Over his career, he has earned multiple Writers Guild Award nominations—winning one—and an Emmy nomination. Rosner holds a broad academic background, graduating with the equivalent of eight majors. Based in Los Angeles, he continues to write and develop ideas while spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.
Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen discuss society’s apathetic response to the disruptive rise of AI, drawing parallels to historical crises like World War II and COVID. They explore misinformation, political grifting, future faking, and the psychological gap between perception and reality in an age of comfort, confusion, and cultural inertia.
Rick Rosner: Here is the topic. It has always been wild that life continues, even when things feel dire.
People went about their daily lives as World War II unfolded. Moreover, that war, across the U.S. and Europe, was far more all-encompassing—it involved the daily efforts of nearly everyone in the countries involved. Rationing, men off to war, women in factories—lives changed.
AI, by comparison, seems like it will be even more disruptive, but we are not adjusting. We are still going about our day, even though the ground is shifting.
Sure, many people now use AI, but a lot of what is called AI is just fill-in-the-blank bullshit—like, “If you liked this movie, you will like that one.”
Still, the disruption is real and coming fast. However, we act as if it is just another tool. Do you have feelings about that?
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yes. It reflects a long-term pattern in civilization—whenever new technologies emerge, pandemics hit, or population structures shift, there is disruption. Sometimes multiple disruptions co-occur.
Rosner: Okay, but you brought up pandemics. COVID changed our daily lives in 2020.
Jacobsen: Yes. However, I do not want to draw a false symmetry between COVID and World War II. Moreover, to be clear, I am not suggesting you are doing that. However, people often say, “Well, we had World War I, then the Spanish flu, and then World War II… So we had COVID. Therefore,. Therefore, a global war must be coming.” I want to avoid that kind of fatalism.
Rosner: No, no, I am not saying that either. AI will be more disruptive than World War II, more than COVID, more than the Spanish flu. However, we are not responding as if it is. Moreover, I do not know how we would respond—what are we supposed to do? Just wait for it to hit?
Though we could do some things during COVID, some people did them; others did not. We had guidelines. We had public health messaging. Some people were like, “Yeah, that makes sense.” Others went full conspiracy mode—”It is a hoax,” “It is a plot,” etc. But with AI? It will rattle the world; there is nothing to do except watch it unfold.
Jacobsen: We also live in a hyper-saturated information environment. There are two things to point out here. First, if you ask people, “Do you think X problem is getting worse or better?” Most will say it is getting worse, no matter the problem. Then you look at actual data, and you find that not only are people wrong, they are wildly off.
Rosner: Can we pause that for a second? Because, on the whole, things are getting better.
Jacobsen: Yes.
Rosner: I believe that things, on the whole, are getting better. However, I also think they could make things even better if they had a plan, and we could call that plan…
Jacobsen: Preparation H.
Rosner: [Laughing] Okay.
Jacobsen: I am stealing that joke from Austin Powers. That is the scene where Scott Evil—literally another Scott—is talking to Dr. Evil and says something like, “I think it also feels good on the whole… or having Preparation H on the whole.”
Rosner: So yes. On the whole… yes. It is almost a cliché, but it holds up: you would rather be a regular person today than the most powerful king 200 years ago.
Jacobsen: No comparison. In terms of amenities? No contest. Modern medicine, refrigeration, plumbing—today wins. However, some people might trade amenities for a sense of power, for actual control over others. So it depends. However, generally, yes, materially, people are better off today than ever before.
However, even in this information-rich environment, people have massive misconceptions about how things are going. That is one of the core issues. If you ask people, “Is poverty increasing? Is violence rising?” They almost always say yes, even though the data often says the opposite.
It is not just ignorance. It is a deeper kind of error—misconception. That is more dangerous, because it feels informed but is way off. That kind of warped perception opens the door to PT Barnum types, grifters with grandstanding promises.
In narcissist literature, there is a term for this: future faking. You sell someone a fantasy about the future—a dream relationship, a massive business win. You lure them with something that sounds visionary but is fraudulent.
Moreover, people believe it, not because it is true, but because they want it to be true.
Rosner: Quick digression: There was an article—I forget where, maybe Forbes, maybe something more obscure—that laid out how Trump has made billions since being elected.
As president, he was not supposed to be doing business—he was supposed to be president. However, in just a few months, he went from severe financial peril to increasing his net worth by $2.5 billion, primarily through crypto schemes and shady ventures. Moreover, that does not count his kids, who are off doing their crypto hustle. The Trump family is cleaning up—to the tune of many billions.
Jacobsen: That is classic future faking—scamming through fantasy. The promises are fantastical, and the belief in them is very real, even if the factual basis is false. That belief is driven by misconception, not truth. That is what is dangerous. That is what we are seeing—even in an information-rich society. So we have the amenities. People are comfortable, fat, and technologically enabled.
Rosner: But also easily exploited by abusers, by grifters, by people who want to profit off their suffering. Moreover, they are succeeding. There is another cliché in modern America: Trump supporters are willing to suffer, as long as they believe that the people they hate are suffering more.
That the MAGA crowd is okay with conditions worsening for themselves, as long as they think it is even worse for libs and immigrants. So here is another topic: If you are fully cognizant, and you are, you go about your business. I go about mine.
We went to a party tonight for a TV show. We do this kind of thing often. Carol signs us up for many of them—it has become a cultural rhythm. Whether you get in late is by lottery, but we try to hit as many as possible.
It feels like fiddling while Rome burns. However, at this point, what else is there? Do you see any other way of being?
Jacobsen: No. Americans are particularly prone to extremes. Conservative and libertarian types tend to pump the brakes, which, in some cases, is good. Caution is warranted with specific significant social shifts.
However, there is also a tendency to pump the brakes on objectively good things—equal marriage, reproductive health care, and human rights advocacy. Moreover, that delay is not neutral—it is hurting people. In the case of abortion, it is killing people.
On the aggressive progressive side, there is a tendency to press the gas on things that are also objectively good—trans rights, evidence-based sex education, universalist principles enshrined in policy.
However, they also sometimes implode into infighting, tone policing, and neologisms that may be accurate but are not always helpful, going in many different directions without a unified message.
Rosner: Maybe it is just me, but the liberal democratic tone policing era has burned itself out. Few people give a shit about that anymore. I want to think the Democratic establishment knows they cannot support nonsense without paying a price. Moreover, they have already paid a price.
Even though most Democrats do not care about political correctness, Republicans will still paint them with that brush. Just like how they claim Democrats want to turn everyone trans.
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