Human Behavior and Incentives: How Fiat Money and AI Gamify Our Lives—and How Proof of Work Can Set Us Free

The key concept drive our existence in the fiat matrix is that human behaviors are downstream from incentives. Our actions are shaped by the incentives around us—always have been, always will be. Today, two powerful forces are manipulating those incentives like never before: the abundance of fiat currency and the rapid advancement of AI technology. Together, they’ve gamified our attention, exploited our dopamine systems, and pulled us deeper into staking ourselves to the fiat matrix. From doom scrolling social media to video game addiction and full immersion into the metaverse, these forces are rewiring how we live. But there’s only one way to break of proof of stake, and that is by leveraging the more fundamentally sounds protocol of proof of work…only through work can we break free from the fiat matrix.

Fiat Money and AI: The Perfect Storm of Manipulation

Let’s start with fiat currency. As I’ve written before, fiat money—unbacked by anything tangible like gold—can be printed in unlimited quantities by central banks. This abundance creates warped incentives and steals our time and life energy through the stealth theft that is inflation. Governments and corporations, the ones closest to the money printer, benefit first, using their control to shape markets and behavior. Since the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971, the M2 money supply has ballooned from $600 billion to over $21 trillion by 2023, according to the Federal Reserve. This flood of fiat fuels a system where attention becomes the most valuable currency.

Enter AI and technology. Advancements in AI have supercharged the gamification of human behavior, enabling those directing our attention to have far greater control of the masses. Social media platforms, powered by AI algorithms, are designed to keep you engaged in the digital world, not matter what the cost in the real world. A 2023 study from the American Psychological Association found that the average American spends 4.8 hours a day on their phone, much of it doom scrolling through endless feeds. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X use AI to analyze your behavior, serving up content that spikes your dopamine—the brain’s reward chemical. Every like, comment, or viral video is a tiny hit, keeping you coming back for more. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of younger people aren't even capable of interacting live and in person, instead preferring the comfort and safety of a screen to buffer their interactions.

It’s not just social media. Video game addiction, pornography, and even online gambling have exploded too, driven by the same dopamine-harvesting tactics. The global gaming industry, valued at $250 billion in 2024 per Newzoo, thrives on microtransactions and loot boxes—mechanics engineered to exploit reward-seeking behavior. Meanwhile, the adult entertainment industry, boosted by AI-driven personalization, has seen usage soar, with Pornhub reporting 42 billion visits in 2023 alone. These industries aren’t just entertaining us; they’re manipulating us, using technology to hijack our attention for profit.

The Incentive Structure: Who Benefits?

So, who’s pulling the strings? The ones with control over fiat money and tech—governments, central banks, and Big Tech. Fiat’s never ending abundance enables them fund sprawling surveillance and advertising ecosystems. Companies like Meta and Google, which made $135 billion and $307 billion in ad revenue in 2023 respectively, thrive by selling your attention to the highest bidder. They use AI to micro-target you, ensuring you stay glued to your screen, clicking, scrolling, and consuming. The Ministry of Truth, the media industrial complex of the fiat matrix, is another notable beneficiary of this gamification of our attention. Narratives can be spun (or snuffed out) by the Ministry of Truth by coopting just a few of the major tech players in the space, look up the Twitter Files or Mark Zuckerberg's interview with Joe Rogan as just a couple of glaring examplea of this in action.

This manipulation isn’t accidental—it’s the natural downstream effect of the incentives fiat and tech create. When money is infinite, the focus shifts to capturing something truly scarce: your time and focus. The more time you spend on devices, the more data you generate, and the more money these entities make. It’s a vicious cycle. A 2024 report from the National Institute of Mental Health noted a 30% rise in anxiety and depression linked to excessive screen time since 2019, showing the real human cost of this gamified system.

The Dopamine Trap: A Behavioral Crisis

The gamification of attention has led to a behavioral crisis. Doom scrolling keeps us in a state of constant anxiety, as we’re fed a steady diet of outrage and fear. Video game addiction pulls people—especially young men—out of the real world, with the World Health Organization recognizing gaming disorder as a mental health condition in 2019. Porn addiction, meanwhile, rewires relationships and expectations, with studies like those from the Journal of Sexual Medicine (2023) linking excessive use to decreased satisfaction in real-life intimacy.

These behaviors all stem from dopamine spike harvesting. AI systems are designed to exploit our brain’s reward system, giving us just enough “wins” to keep us engaged, especially in the younger generations. It’s no coincidence that the average teen now spends 7.5 hours a day on screens, per a 2024 Common Sense Media report. We’re not just distracted—we’re trapped, our natural human impulses weaponized against us by a system that profits from our addiction.

Breaking Free: The Fiat Matrix and the Power of Proof of Work

So, how do we escape this manipulated ecosystem? First, we need to recognize that fiat currency and AI-driven tech form a matrix—a self-reinforcing system that keeps us tethered to devices and disconnected from reality and distracted from their theft or our life energy through perpetual inflation. The solution isn’t just to “put down the phone” (though that helps). We need to fundamentally rethink the incentives we operate under.

This is where proof of work comes enters stage right. Proof of work, the driving force and fundamental principle powering Bitcoin, is a system where value is created through real, verifiable effort. Miners compete to solve complex mathematical problems, expending energy to secure the network and earn rewards, in order to codify and cement transactions with are occurring on the blockchain. It’s the opposite of fiat’s “print and profit” model—value in a proof-of-work system is tied to tangible work, not arbitrary creation. Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins, with about 19.7 million in circulation as of April 2025, ensures that its value is reinforced as additional work is executed to add every additional block to the chain.

By embracing proof of work, we can shift our incentives away from the fiat matrix. Bitcoin isn’t just a currency; it’s a philosophy of value rooted in scarcity and effort. It encourages saving over spending, or lowering your time preference, since its value tends to rise over time based on math…specifically the fact that it is absolutely finite and being valued by something which, by definition, is infinite (fiat). It also fosters independence—you can hold Bitcoin without relying on banks or third parties, cutting out the middlemen who profit from your attention. But such independence or freedom isn't free, it takes work to do sufficient research to become comfortable with self custody.

Most importantly, proof of work can (and must) inspire a broader mindset shift. It serves as a reminder that real value comes from effort, not exploitation. If we apply this principle to our lives—focusing on meaningful experiences, real-world connections, physical fitness, and tangible skills—we can break free from the dopamine traps of the digital world. In an increasing automated world dominated by AI, we are likely to see a massive inversion of human purpose, shifting from what we historically viewed as work (which AI will soon take over entirely) and requiring that we work toward greater fulfillment in other ways altogether.

Steps to Reclaim Our Attention and Behavior

Breaking free from the fiat matrix won’t happen overnight, but here are a few practical steps to start:

Limit Device Time: Set strict boundaries—use apps like Freedom or Forest to block distracting sites, and aim for no more than 2 hours of recreational screen time daily.

Diversify Your Dopamine Sources: Replace digital highs with real ones—exercise, hobbies, or face-to-face conversations can give you a natural boost without the crash.

Opt Out of Fiat Where Possible: Dive in and do your own research on Bitcoin as the only alternative to remove third party risk from our money. Even small steps, like self custodying a portion of your wealth in BTC, can shift your incentives and lower your time preference.

Embrace Proof of Work in Life: Focus on activities that require real effort and yield lasting rewards—building community, learning a skill, enhancing your physical fitness, or strengthening relationships.

Final Thoughts: Rewriting the Incentive Script

Human behavior will always follow incentives. Right now, control of fiat, AI, and technology advancements have created a system that gamifies our attention, harvests our dopamine, and traps us in a cycle of consumption and distraction. But we’re not powerless. By rejecting the manipulated fiat ecosystem and embracing proof of work, we can rewrite the script—both for our money and our lives. Bitcoin isn’t just a financial tool; it’s a blueprint for a world where value is earned, not exploited. We must first look within by asking ourselves: what incentives are we following and where are they leading us?

Jake Galt