Liable man

We have witnessed the demise of homo sapiens and the emergence of liable man. The distinctive features of homo sapiens — creativity, adaptivity, empathy, intelligence — have been replaced in liable man with a single function: delivering utterances and performing actions that are in compliance with laws and regulations, to shift any possible blame and avoid liability. This replacement has had a fleeting evolutionary advantage which is ending imminently, with digital expert systems rendering liable man obsolete.

The ancestor of Liable man is the thrifty and servile bureaucrat. But in his current invasive form he has taken over every human profession. Doctors, principals, real-estate agents, contractors, have all but morphed into a slow interface for consulting laws and regulations, providing no added value but significant attrition. Liable man answers the question “What would you do if it was your life” with brief, affected sympathy, then doubles down playing by the playbook. He turns communities into lifeless towns of suspicious zombies, where all services are outsourced.

Be the change, volunteer in your community, add value, or be pointless.