The key insights
Technological progress is exponential — and we are not built to think exponentially. That is the thread running through everything below.
of all technology is younger than 400 years
Almost everything we ever invented appeared in the last 0.03% of our existence as a species. The curve is only now starting to bend upward. (ARK Invest)
of change in the next 5–10 years
The pace of progress itself is accelerating. What used to take a century will happen within a single career phase. (Ray Kurzweil)
an AI among the world's elite programmers
Claude Opus 4.6, running in Aragorn's own Shelby harness, placed 10th out of seven thousand top coders in three attempts. Mental labor is no longer an exclusively human domain.
into robotics in 2026 — $7 bn of it humanoid
More than 200 companies worldwide are building humanoid robots — over 150 of them in China, fewer than 10 in Europe. Embodied AI: the next wave, from mental to physical work.
AI exposure of finance professions
In the Dutch labour market, the seven core finance professions score a weighted 8.3 out of 10 on AI exposure, against a 5.2 average across all jobs. Knowledge work is first in line — everywhere.
job categories are short of people
With 91 vacancies per 100 unemployed (NL), AI exposure is not a job-loss story but a capacity story: the machine absorbs the work we cannot staff anyway.
Follow the journey
This keynote is a snapshot. The story continues daily — pick the format that fits you.
The benchmarks — man vs machine, June 2026
The charts from the keynote, built on the current state of the major AI benchmarks. Click any chart to enlarge.
The slides
The most relevant slides from the keynote — including every chart. Click any slide to view it full screen.
01 — Exponential change
02 — Mental labor
03 — The economics of AI & work
04 — Physical labor
05 — Science & longevity
06 — Closing
The videos
Every clip from the keynote, by chapter — to rewatch or share. Click a video to enlarge and play; nothing loads until you do.
01 — Exponential change
02 — The metaphor: AI video then & now
03 — Mental labor
04 — Work & jobs
05 — Physical labor
06 — Science, longevity & closing
Not a lecture. An experience.
Yes, the content is serious. The delivery isn't. Expect jokes, music, live AI experiments and a room that wakes up — and somewhere between the laughs, 100 years of change quietly lands.
Keep exploring
Things from the keynote you can use right now.
Dutch labour market × AI — visualizer
Interactive treemap of 114 occupations in the Netherlands: size is number of jobs, colour is AI exposure. Click a tile for the full occupational profile. (Interface in Dutch — the pattern applies everywhere.)
Golven van Overvloed — 20% off
Patrick Willer's book on the waves of abundance that exponential technology brings — referenced in the keynote as further reading. In Dutch. This link orders with the 20% keynote discount.
An artist website, built live on stage
Built during the keynote: from a spoken briefing ("a very simple site for abstract black-and-white art") to a designed, deployed website — by AI, in minutes. This is what "100 years of change" looks like in practice.
Bring this keynote to your organisation
Man & Machine, tailored to your industry and your audience — plus everything else Aragorn speaks about: AI, robotics, the metaverse and the exponential decade.
What this means for you
Exposure is not a threat
High AI exposure means your tasks change, not that your profession disappears — certainly not in labour markets starved for people. The routine subtasks go to the machine; capacity comes back.
What is human rises in value
Judgment, trust, relationships, oversight and the question "is this right — and is it wise?" become scarcer and more valuable as production gets cheaper. Man and machine — not man or machine.
Start today
The real reason to start now is simple: the pace doesn't wait for your planning. Not how we do the work, but what we choose to do — that becomes the question.
Don't let this be the end
You just saw what one keynote's worth of change looks like. Imagine what a year of it looks like. Stay close — it's free, and it compounds.
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