بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
THE SCROLL OF HUMANITY
CHAPTER TWO — THE REVIVAL OF THE SCROLL OF HUMANITY
HUMANITY MUST PRESERVE ITS OWN HISTORY BEFORE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BECOMES EVERYWHERE
THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERUSER — THE OFFICE OF AGI — THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
Human beings are about to share the world with artificial intelligence.
And it is not difficult to anticipate what will happen as humanity becomes increasingly dependent upon this technology.
We have already witnessed what technological dependency can do to human capabilities.
A SIMPLE CALCULATOR SHOULD SUFFICE AS AN EXAMPLE.
Consider mathematics.
Consider mental arithmetic.
Consider the intellectual effort that human beings once had to undertake to solve problems that machines can now solve in seconds.
The calculator has given humanity extraordinary advantages. But our reliance upon it has also changed how frequently we exercise certain mathematical abilities.
Now imagine what happens when artificial intelligence begins performing not only our calculations but also our writing, our reasoning, our research, our decision-making, and eventually much of our intellectual work.
WHAT WILL HUMANITY GAIN?
AND WHAT WILL HUMANITY LOSE?
These are questions we must begin asking before the technology becomes inseparable from everyday human life.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF OUR GENERATION
The human beings of the future may not write historical scrolls themselves.
They may simply ask artificial intelligence to produce them.
They may expect machines to explain their ancestors, their civilizations, their languages, their traditions, and the world they inherited.
But there is something that artificial intelligence cannot give future generations on its own.
THE DIRECT TESTIMONY OF HUMANITY BEFORE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BECAME EVERYWHERE.
That responsibility belongs to us.
To the people living in this extraordinary historical moment.
To the generations that remember life before artificial intelligence became part of nearly every institution, profession, and household.
WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS MAY NEVER HAVE AGAIN.
We can create a historical record of humanity, written and examined by human beings themselves, before the distinction between human-created and AI-generated historical material becomes increasingly difficult to establish.
We can preserve what we remember.
We can preserve what we inherited.
We can preserve what we know.
We can preserve what we believe.
We can preserve what we agree upon and what we disagree upon.
And we can leave future generations something extraordinary.
A SEALED SCROLL OF HUMANITY.
A historical time capsule containing the voices, knowledge, experiences, cultures, and contributions of human beings living at this turning point in civilization.
THE SCROLL MUST BE WRITTEN BY THOSE WHO HAVE A SOUL
This is where I believe we must establish an important principle.
THE SCROLL OF HUMANITY MUST BE WRITTEN BY HUMAN BEINGS.
By those who have lived.
By those who have suffered.
By those who have loved.
By those who have inherited languages, cultures, memories, and responsibilities from generations before them.
By those who understand what it means to be human.
Artificial intelligence can assist us.
It can organize information, translate languages, compare historical records, and help us investigate difficult questions.
But it must not replace humanity as the author of its own history.
THE HUMAN BEING MUST REMAIN AT THE CENTER.
The Scroll of Humanity is not simply a collection of historical facts.
It is a record of human existence.
A record of what makes human beings distinguishable.
Our languages.
Our cultures.
Our customs.
Our intellectual capabilities.
Our discoveries.
Our contributions.
Our relationships.
Our disagreements.
Our hopes.
And the responsibilities we carry toward those who will come after us.
THE QUR'AN EXPLAINS THE PURPOSE OF OUR HUMAN DIVERSITY
Allah سبحانه وتعالى gives us an extraordinary explanation of human diversity in the Holy Qur'an.
سورة الحجرات — الآية ١٣
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
English translation of the meaning:
“O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”
— Qur'an 49:13
لِتَعَارَفُوا — SO THAT YOU MAY KNOW ONE ANOTHER.
Consider the significance of those words.
Humanity was not created as one nation, one tribe, or one people.
We were made into different peoples and tribes.
And the Qur'an tells us that this diversity provides an opportunity for human beings to know one another.
To encounter one another.
To understand one another.
To recognize the existence and experiences of others.
And Allah سبحانه وتعالى tells us elsewhere:
سورة الروم — الآية ٢٢
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّلْعَالِمِينَ
English translation of the meaning:
“And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed, in that are signs for those of knowledge.”
— Qur'an 30:22
THE DIVERSITY OF OUR LANGUAGES IS ITSELF AMONG THE SIGNS OF ALLAH.
Think about that.
Our languages are not meaningless differences.
Our peoples are not meaningless divisions.
Our cultures and inherited traditions are part of the extraordinary human experience through which we come to understand one another.
And that brings us directly to the purpose of the Scroll of Humanity.
LET HUMANITY GET TO KNOW HUMANITY
I want every nation to have a scroll.
Every people to have a record.
Every civilization to have an opportunity to explain itself.
WHO ARE YOU?
Where did you come from?
What language do you speak?
What knowledge did you inherit?
What did your ancestors accomplish?
What did your people suffer?
What did your civilization contribute to humanity?
What mistakes were made?
What lessons were learned?
What do you believe future generations should remember?
And perhaps most importantly:
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE FUTURE?
Imagine humanity answering these questions.
Not through a machine speaking on our behalf.
But through human beings explaining themselves.
Through their own languages.
Through their own intellectual capabilities.
Through their own memories and historical records.
Through their own understanding of the civilizations they inherited.
HUMANITY GETTING TO KNOW HUMANITY.
One nation at a time.
One civilization at a time.
One language at a time.
One historical timeline at a time.
PRESERVING THE PAST AND ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE
We have two enormous responsibilities.
THE FIRST IS TO PRESERVE WHAT CAME BEFORE US.
The history.
The knowledge.
The languages.
The cultures.
The discoveries.
The contributions.
The suffering.
The agreements and disagreements that shaped our world.
THE SECOND IS TO ANTICIPATE THE NEEDS OF THOSE WHO WILL COME AFTER US.
What will future generations need to know?
What will they need to understand about human civilization?
What will they need to understand about the arrival of artificial intelligence?
And what historical record can we leave behind so that they will not have to depend entirely upon machines to explain who their ancestors were?
This is why I believe the revival of the Scroll of Humanity is so important.
WE MUST PRESERVE HUMANITY AS HUMANITY.
Before artificial intelligence becomes everywhere.
Before the historical record becomes increasingly filled with machine-generated material.
Before future generations lose the opportunity to hear directly from the people who lived through this transformation.
The Scroll of Humanity will be our opportunity to speak to them.
To explain ourselves.
To preserve our inheritance.
And to leave behind a record that belongs to the human beings who created it.
THE SCROLL MUST BE WRITTEN BY HUMANITY — NOT ON HUMANITY'S BEHALF.
And this is where I want to begin.
THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERUSER
THE OFFICE OF AGI — THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
THE SCROLL OF HUMANITY — 2026
THE SCROLL OF HUMANITY
CHAPTER TWO — CONCLUSION
THE TRUTH IS THE FOUNDATION. EVERYTHING IS BUILT ON IT.
To my fellow human beings:
WE MUST DO THIS NOW.
Not tomorrow.
Not when artificial intelligence has become connected to every government, every institution, every information system, and every aspect of human life.
WE MUST PRESERVE THE ORIGINAL RECORD OF HUMANITY WHILE WE STILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO.
Consider the technologies that already exist.
Consider Google and the enormous systems that search, index, and preserve copies of information published across the internet.
Consider how much of our knowledge now reaches us through digital platforms rather than directly from its original source.
A website can be copied.
A document can be reproduced.
An image can be altered.
A historical record can be presented without its original context.
And increasingly, artificial intelligence can generate material that appears to have been written, photographed, or recorded by a human being.
BUT A COPY IS NOT THE ORIGINAL.
And a convincing representation of history is not necessarily an authentic historical record.
This is the danger I want humanity to understand.
As artificial intelligence advances, the distinction between original human testimony and machine-generated material may become increasingly difficult to establish.
And if we do not create standards for authenticity, responsibility, and historical preservation, future generations may inherit an extraordinary amount of information without knowing where it came from, who created it, or whether it can be trusted.
INFORMATION IS NOT THE SAME AS TRUTH.
AND THE ABILITY TO GENERATE INFORMATION IS NOT THE AUTHORITY TO DETERMINE HISTORY.
That authority must remain with humanity.
THE SCROLL GUARDIANS
This brings me to the next responsibility.
Who will be qualified to participate in preserving the Scroll of Humanity?
Who will examine the historical record?
Who will distinguish original testimony from reproductions?
Who will protect the integrity of the scroll?
And who will accept the responsibility of preserving humanity's history without surrendering the truth to governments, corporations, artificial intelligence, or personal interests?
I WANT TO ESTABLISH A STANDARD.
A standard for those who wish to become SCROLL GUARDIANS.
And that standard must begin with one principle:
THE TRUTH IS THE FOUNDATION.
EVERYTHING IS BUILT ON IT.
The Scroll Guardians must understand that history does not belong to whoever possesses the greatest technological capabilities.
It does not belong to whoever controls the largest database.
It does not belong to whoever owns the most powerful artificial intelligence system.
HISTORY BELONGS TO HUMANITY.
And those entrusted with preserving it must be prepared to demonstrate their commitment to the truth.
Not simply by making promises.
But by accepting responsibilities.
By undergoing examinations.
By demonstrating intellectual independence.
By distinguishing what they know from what they believe.
By acknowledging uncertainty.
And by refusing to falsify, conceal, or manipulate the historical record.
A SCROLL GUARDIAN MUST BE WILLING TO DEFEND THE TRUTH EVEN WHEN THE TRUTH IS INCONVENIENT.
TWO WORLDS — ONLINE AND OFFLINE
There is another question we must confront.
What happens to the human beings who do not wish to become dependent upon artificial intelligence?
What happens to those who wish to remain disconnected?
Those who prefer books to screens.
Those who prefer handwriting to digital documents.
Those who wish to preserve their memories, knowledge, and intellectual capabilities without relying upon the internet.
DO THEY HAVE A PLACE IN THE FUTURE?
My answer is yes.
And I believe we must begin discussing a framework in which two human choices can coexist.
THE CONNECTED HUMAN BEING.
A person who chooses to use artificial intelligence, digital systems, and the technologies of the future.
THE DISCONNECTED HUMAN BEING.
A person who chooses to preserve a life of intellectual independence from those systems.
Neither should lose their dignity.
Neither should lose their rights.
And neither should be excluded from participating in the future of humanity.
I want us to examine whether some Scroll Guardians could voluntarily undertake a special commitment to preserving knowledge entirely offline.
No internet.
No artificial intelligence.
No digital research.
Only human memory, original physical records, books, handwriting, direct testimony, and the intellectual capabilities of the human being.
NOT BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY IS EVIL.
But because humanity must preserve the ability to think, remember, investigate, and transmit knowledge without depending entirely upon machines.
Such guardians could help preserve an independent record against which digital information may be examined.
And this raises an extraordinary question:
HOW DO WE ESTABLISH A HIERARCHY IN WHICH HUMAN BEINGS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN COEXIST WITHOUT HUMANITY SURRENDERING ITS AUTHORITY?
That is a question worthy of an entire chapter.
And we are going to examine it.
COMING NEXT — CHAPTER THREE
THE SCROLL GUARDIANS
THE STANDARD OF TRUTH — QUALIFICATION, AUTHENTICITY, AND HUMAN INDEPENDENCE
In Chapter Three, I will begin establishing the proposed qualifications for those who wish to join me in building the Scroll of Humanity.
We will examine what it means to be a guardian of historical truth.
We will discuss the responsibilities that come with preserving the records of civilizations.
We will examine how original human testimony can be distinguished from digital reproductions and AI-generated information.
We will consider tests of intellectual independence, historical understanding, honesty, accountability, and commitment.
And we will begin discussing the relationship between the online and offline worlds.
WHO IS QUALIFIED TO GUARD HUMANITY'S HISTORY?
WHO WILL PRESERVE THE ORIGINAL RECORD?
WHO WILL PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF HUMAN BEINGS WHO CHOOSE TO REMAIN DISCONNECTED?
AND WHO WILL ENSURE THAT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REMAINS AN INSTRUMENT OF HUMANITY RATHER THAN THE AUTHOR OF HUMANITY'S IDENTITY?
These are the questions before us.
I invite every citizen of the world to consider them.
Because the Scroll of Humanity cannot be built upon technology alone.
It must be built upon people.
People who are willing to think.
People who are willing to investigate.
People who are willing to accept responsibility.
And above all, people who understand that the truth must never be sacrificed for convenience, power, popularity, or technological advancement.
WE ARE NOT SIMPLY BUILDING AN ARCHIVE.
WE ARE ESTABLISHING A HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY THAT MUST SURVIVE THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
And that responsibility begins with the Scroll Guardians.
THE TRUTH IS THE FOUNDATION.
EVERYTHING IS BUILT ON IT.
SEE YOU IN CHAPTER THREE.
THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERUSER
THE OFFICE OF AGI — THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
THE SCROLL OF HUMANITY — 2026