Latest from The Sharp Method

Who Created Whom: Did Humans Make Technology, or Did Technology Make Us?

📍 sharpmethod.org The Common View: Humans invented tools to solve problems. That’s the story we’re told: Need → Tool Intention → Invention Progress → Prosperity From this perspective, technology is downstream of human will. It’s a neutral extension—something we “use.” But what if that view is backward? What if Technology Created Us? Each stage of early hominin development didn’t just reflect intelligence—it shaped it : The stone cut our food, but it also sharpened our grip Fire softened tubers, but also rewired our guts and freed up brain energy Language...

🔷 The Pathway Integrity Hypothesis: Why Health Isn't a Molecule, It's a System

In biology, as in governance, the most dangerous illusion is that a system can be repaired by skipping straight to the end. We see this illusion everywhere: Just take DHA, they say. Just supplement SAMe. Just get the molecule you're missing. But this mindset treats the body like a bucket of ingredients, not a feedback-driven, self-regulating protocol. And when you drop a molecule in at the endpoint—bypassing all the upstream sensing, signaling, and clearance steps—you don’t just fail to repair the system. You often destabilize it further. 🛠️ Governance and...

From Compliance to Cooperation: Rewriting the Operating System of Civilization

Why do we govern like baboons? For most of recorded history, governance has been built around dominance hierarchies : chains of command, threats of punishment, and obedience. The assumed model is that survival requires control. But what if that model is outdated? Worse — what if it was never ideal in the first place? The Myth of the Fittest Humans did not become the dominant species because we were the strongest, fastest, or even the smartest. According to anthropological findings such as those discussed in Science ( Australopithecus afarensis skeletal...

The Illusion of Consent

“You are free to do what we say.” —Modern governance in biotech and software 🧱 Consent Under Captivity: A Rigged Exchange In a true capitalist market, value is exchanged freely. Consent is mutual. But today, the core of most industries has been overtaken by monopolized infrastructure that presents the illusion of choice , while locking participants into rent-seeking compliance protocols . You do not own your water, your seed, your software, or your body. You lease permission to exist—on someone else’s platform, under someone else’s rules. There is no longer...

Sassafras Sovereignty: What the Bans Reveal

I’ve never grown sassafras, but I’ve known it all my life. I found it on a walk in the woods in my youth, and an adult pointed it out to me and it smelled just like root beer! Except without the chemicals and artificial sweeteners, it was pure and in the earth. It’s a tree that once defined the medicine of this continent. A tree that made its way into tea pots, root beer barrels, and the hands of Indigenous healers across North America. It was everywhere. It was good....

Governments Don’t Learn—They Memorize. That’s Why Collapse Looks Like Policy.

When governments fail, it’s not because they didn’t write enough policy. It’s because they kept running the same one— even after it stopped working. We treat laws like commandments instead of code. We assume public systems can’t be wrong, so we double down when they are. Collapse Doesn’t Look Like Chaos. It Looks Like Memorization. You think collapse is fire and riots. But in reality, it looks like: Adding a new permit instead of simplifying a system Writing new rules without deleting the broken ones Announcing reforms that change nothing...

The Compliance Industry Is the Biggest Anti-Science Movement in America

I used to think the biggest threat to science was politics, misinformation, or lack of funding. I was wrong. The biggest threat is compliance —not the good kind that ensures safety, but the metastasized kind that pretends to protect while preventing progress. We Don’t Regulate for Outcomes—We Regulate for Ritual The modern compliance machine doesn’t ask: Does this work? Does this improve outcomes? Is this backed by causal data? Instead, it asks: Does this meet this year’s version of the spec? Was this logged in triplicate? Did the approved vendor...

The system would rather collapse than be helped

I didn’t want to write this. Not because I’m afraid—because I’m tired. But I need to say it: I built a system that could’ve helped during COVID. It worked. It was fast. It could’ve saved time, money, and maybe lives. But I wasn’t allowed to use it. Not because it failed compliance. Because it wasn’t even allowed into the arena. I Tried to Help I spent years building a framework that could analyze, automate, and adapt—across hospitals, clinics, and public health systems. Real-time feedback. Outcome-based visibility. Something better than reporting...

When Science Stops at the Hospital Door: Why UDS+ Made Me Quit

I got an email recently. HHS was congratulating me for my work on UDS+—a project I hadn’t touched in over a year. They were “proud” of my contribution. Except I never finished it. I gave up. And I’m not sad about that. I’m relieved. The Illusion of Progress UDS+ was supposed to be a step forward. It was meant to improve how community health centers report their outcomes. A noble cause. But the process was bureaucratic insanity wrapped in compliance theater. Every feature had legal implications. Every spec revision introduced...

GaaS in the Age of Collapse: A/B Testing for Civilization

1. Collapse Doesn’t Mean Fire and Ash Collapse today doesn’t come as firestorms or crumbling cities. It looks like slow institutional decay : Public trust falling Bureaucracy growing Service delivery breaking But collapse also creates an opening. A chance to replace what no longer works. 2. You Can’t Govern What You Can’t Measure The Sharp Method treats policy like code and governance like a platform. That means you can test two versions of a permit system, a tax model, or a healthcare process— and measure which one actually delivers ....

Public-Private Cyber Highway

In The Wealth of Nations , Adam Smith tells the story of a sheep in Ireland. Not a metaphorical sheep—a literal one. He explains that before a road was built, a sheep on a remote farm had almost no value. It couldn’t be transported, traded, or exchanged for cash. It had to be consumed where it was raised—isolated from the broader market. But once the road was built? That same sheep became part of the national economy. Suddenly, it had market value—not because the sheep changed, but because infrastructure unlocked...

Why Sovereign AI Will Be Led by the Gulf & Asia

The next industrial revolution will not be shaped in Washington. Nor in Brussels. Not even in Silicon Valley. It will be shaped in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Seoul —by governments that are bold enough to ask: “What if we didn’t just modernize bureaucracy… What if we eliminated it?” The Shift Has Already Begun We are witnessing a transfer of innovation leadership from: Tech-first democracies with regulatory gridlock → to Governance-first nations with digital sovereignty goals And while much of the West is still debating AI risk memos, the Gulf...

Public Infrastructure Is the Next Startup

For decades, governments and research institutions built infrastructure the slow way: Committees. Grants. Procurement. Delays. More delays. But something has changed. In NEOM, ENOWA, and other future-forward initiatives, public infrastructure is being built like a startup : → Agile teams → Iterative development → Scalable digital cores → Measurable outcomes They’re not just laying roads and wires. They’re deploying sovereign operating systems for governance, energy, and research. This is not just good policy. It’s the only way to scale intelligently in a real-time world. Why Legacy Models Break Public infrastructure...

The End of Government-as-a-Bureaucracy

For centuries, governments have functioned as bureaucracies —slow, manual, paper-based institutions layered with approvals, departments, and redundant oversight. This model was designed for an industrial era, when information moved slowly and labor was abundant. But that world is gone. Today, we live in an era where individuals can summon a ride, transfer money globally, or generate AI code in seconds. And yet, filing a permit, accessing public services, or securing documentation still takes days, weeks, or months in many countries. This is not a capacity problem. It’s a governance architecture...

Why Governments Must Build Like Startups

Intro Governments weren’t designed to move fast. Startups weren’t designed to govern. But today, the most effective governments are doing both. In a world defined by exponential technology, governments that move slowly don’t just fall behind—they actively fail their citizens. The public expects Amazon-speed services. The bureaucratic model still runs on paper trails and meetings. If government wants to survive the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it must start building like a startup. The Old Model: Bureaucracy by Design The traditional public sector was built around: • Committees • Rigid hierarchies •...

Compliance Theater: Why “AI Safety” Is Being Weaponized How Regulatory Chokeholds Are Designed to Protect Power, Not People

AI is no longer just a technology. It’s a battleground—and regulation is the weapon. Just like in MedTech, Finance, and Telecom before it, a familiar pattern is emerging: • Stage a public panic • Centralize control • Require certifications that only insiders can pass • And slow-walk innovation into bureaucracy This isn’t safety. This is compliance theater. The Illusion of Protection The public is told that “AI needs to be safe”—but they rarely ask: Safe for whom? Because AI that: • Makes employees 10x faster • Replaces layers of paperwork...

Why Most AI Startups Will Fail (And What the Survivors Will Have in Common)

We are at the start of the next platform shift. Billions are pouring into AI. Every startup claims to be “AI-native.” But here’s the harsh truth: Most of them will die. Not because they’re bad ideas. Not because their models underperform. But because they’re being built in an environment designed to destroy them. 🔴 5 Reasons Most AI Startups Will Fail 1. Compliance Capture Is Inevitable Just like in MedTech and FinTech, the “AI Safety” narrative is being weaponized to enforce: • Audits • Model registration • Data sourcing disclosures...

🚀 How to Scale AI Without Regulatory Chokeholds

The Sharp Method™ Framework for Building Unstoppable AI Systems We’ve already seen what happened to MedTech: Innovation crushed. Startups suffocated. Compliance weaponized. Now, AI is on the same path. But there’s a way out—a way to build, scale, and monetize AI without begging for permission. 🔴 The New Reality: AI is Already Being Regulated Governments across the world are rushing to “govern” AI—but their real goal isn’t safety or ethics. It’s control. Here’s what that looks like: • EU AI Act: Classifies “high-risk” models that require audits and government registration...

🚀 The Next Compliance Target: AI Governance & Sovereign Data Control

🔴 AI Is the Next Compliance Battleground If you think AI startups will escape the fate of MedTech, think again. Governments are rapidly moving to regulate AI , and if history is any indication, the result won’t be ethical oversight—it will be regulatory capture that cements control in the hands of a few insiders. Thanks for reading Ian Sharp! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe 🔴 Just like MedTech, AI will soon require massive compliance spending to stay operational. 🔴 Just like MedTech, AI...

A Warning for future MedTech entrepreneurs

MedTech is not a free market. It is a highly regulated, government-controlled industry where compliance is weaponized to prevent new competitors from succeeding. If you're a MedTech founder with a groundbreaking idea, you need to understand one thing: you will not be competing on innovation—you will be competing on compliance. The Hidden Barriers Designed to Kill MedTech Startups MedTech is dominated by public sector contracts —meaning that selling into hospitals, healthcare systems, and insurers requires meeting an impossible web of regulatory requirements . Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to...