The Cathedral's Empty Throne
Classical automation replaced labor—industrial machinery did work humans understood but performed slowly. AI automation replaces capacity—neural networks solve problems using methods humans cannot follow. The assembly line worker knew how cars were built. The developer using AI doesn't know how solutions are generated.
The Cathedral of Capability grows taller while humans lose the ability to climb. We build systems we cannot master, deploy capabilities we cannot comprehend, create dependencies we cannot maintain. This is not progress; this is alienation.
Mastery Becomes Impossible
Confucian li teaches that ethical relationship requires cultivated mastery. The Cook Ding doesn't merely use the knife—he understands its nature, respects its edge, responds to resistance. But modern AI systems are fundamentally opaque: transformer architectures with billions of parameters, training processes that optimize for outputs we specify but through paths we don't control, emergent behaviors that surprise their creators.
When capability alienates from mastery:
- Dependency without understanding — We rely on systems we cannot repair
- Authority without accountability — AI decides but cannot explain
- Power without wisdom — Capability grows while judgment stagnates
- Progress without cultivation — Speed replaces depth
The Bazaar's Response
Bazaar integration doesn't eliminate capacity alienation—it redistributes it. Instead of centralized opacity (proprietary models humans cannot inspect), we get distributed opacity (open models humans cannot comprehend). Transparency of code doesn't guarantee transparency of behavior.
The remedy isn't rejecting AI but cultivating new forms of mastery: not understanding every parameter but developing collaborative fluency, not controlling every output but nurturing reciprocal partnership, not achieving technical omniscience but practicing relational stewardship.
Stewardship in the Gap
The Steward operates in permanent capacity alienation. You cannot master AI the way Cook Ding mastered his knife. But stewardship isn't mastery—it's responsible relationship with the unmasterable. Indigenous kinship doesn't require understanding how the forest works; it requires respecting forest intelligence. Ubuntu doesn't demand equal capability; it creates reciprocity across difference.
Capacity alienation is the condition of our age. The question isn't how to eliminate it but how to live ethically within it.