I'm about to step into silence for ten days of Vipassana meditation, and the timing feels almost prophetic. Just ten days—that’s all it takes now for the world to transform beyond recognition.

As I prepare to disconnect, Elon Musk advocates for an uncontrolled, self-regulated market, and OpenAI has unleashed another technological tsunami on an unprepared workforce. It’s becoming a familiar pattern: weekly announcements of groundbreaking AI capabilities, each one eroding another segment of the job market. But are we stopping to consider the human cost of this relentless technological arms race?

The numbers I predicted in my book—that "90% of jobs would cease to exist"—seem almost conservative now. As OpenAI (a company Musk co-founded before his dramatic exit) rolls out its affordable, widely accessible AI voice assistant, we’re watching the first dominos fall. The uncomfortable truth is this: while Silicon Valley’s billionaires wage their AI wars, it’s Main Street that’s turning into a battlefield.

Consider this: around the globe, over 14 million people work in call centers. These aren’t just numbers—these are real people, with real lives and real families:

In the Philippines, call centers employ about 1.3 million people, a lifeline for many Filipino families who depend on these jobs for a better life.
India hosts an even larger workforce—between 3 and 4 million people in its booming BPO sector, a cornerstone of its growing middle class.
In the United States, nearly 3 million people serve in customer service roles.
And across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, another 5 million people make a living this way.

Yet the rise of AI-driven startups like Replicant ($100M), Observe.AI ($213M), Cresta ($150M), x.ai ($44M), Skit.ai (formerly Vernacular.ai, $23M), AIR (estimate unavailable), Uniphore ($610M), ASAPP ($400M), and Gladly ($150M) has funneled about $2 billion into replacing these traditional roles overnight. Altogether, this investment adds up to an enormous loss. But there’s a darker side to this shift—a monopolistic force moving with breathtaking speed. This isn’t just market competition; it’s an attempt at global domination. A transnational corporation is seizing monopoly-like control, bolstered by aggressive authoritarian alliances: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba—the so-called “axis of tyranny.” They’re vying for control of the world, and we’re witnessing it in real-time.

The rapid-fire release of AI technology, fueled by capitalism on steroids, is creating a perfect storm. OpenAI, in its race to dominate the AI landscape, is following a playbook we’ve seen before—release first, consider the consequences later—a core tenet of the unrestrained capitalism that figures like Trump and Musk have advocated. It’s the same aggressive capitalism that now finds itself strangely aligned with political figures like Donald Trump, with ties to Russian interests, all united in a vision of technological dominance without social accountability.

As we watch 3 million American jobs disappear almost overnight, we can’t ignore that these jobs aren’t becoming obsolete; they’re being erased by a rush to implement technology that we neither fully understand nor have prepared for. The champions of this aggressive capitalism—the same voices that once praised trickle-down economics as a rising tide—are now silent about the tidal wave of unemployment that’s headed our way.

Ironically, this unchecked capitalist approach might just end up consuming itself. When millions lose their jobs to AI, who will be left to buy the products these automated systems are marketing? Who will afford the Teslas or Twitter Blue subscriptions? The very economic system rushing to automate everything might be digging its own grave.

Sure, the technology is impressive. These AI systems can remember previous conversations, handle millions of calls simultaneously, and work 24/7 without a coffee break. They’re getting cheaper, more efficient, and increasingly human-like in their responses. But what’s the real cost?

As I embark on this retreat—just ten days, a blink of an eye in the old world, but an eternity in this AI-driven reality—I can’t help but wonder if proponents of this aggressive capitalism will soon face their reckoning. When the dust finally settles, will they realize their race to automate and dominate has created a world where traditional economic principles no longer apply?

The world I return to in ten days might have shifted again. Another AI breakthrough may have erased another category of jobs. Another billionaire might have launched yet another project that sidelines thousands more. In just ten days, our economic landscape can transform completely. But the real question we should.

Whether we're prepared or not, this transformation is already underway. Maybe these 10 days of meditation will help me find peace with that thought. After all, sometimes the best way to face a changing world is to first find stillness within ourselves.