Stilwell, Phil: Humanity as a Middle Child in the Age of AI: Patterns of Delegation and Epistemic Atrophy

HUMANITY AS A MIDDLE CHILD IN THE AGE OF AI Humanity's relationship with artificial intelligence has entered a stage of epistemic adolescence. Positioned between its own rational past and an emerging class of autonomous inferential systems, humanity increasingly behaves like a middle child: deferential, identity-diused, and tempted toward the comfort of delegation. This paper examines how deference to algorithmic authority parallels the middle child's tendency to cede decision-making to an older