For Leonhard, the danger lies in the loss of "friction." He argues that friction creates identity and imperfection creates empathy. In a world of total optimization, we lose the very constraints that make human connection and moral choice meaningful.
The resistance and struggle we encounter shape who we are as individuals and as a society.
Our flaws and limitations are the very source of our capacity to connect with and understand one another.
A frictionless world eliminates the constraints that make human connection and moral choice meaningful.
Leonhard presents a framework he calls "Hellven"—a portmanteau of heaven and hell—to describe the simultaneous arrival of utopia and dystopia. He argues that our current trajectory is not a choice between one or the other, but a collision of both. This is not merely a matter of "pros and cons," but a fundamental tension where the "Heaven" of our capability creates the "Hell" of our consequence.