Manus: When AI Stops Asking for Permission
What happens when intelligence no longer waits for human approval?
For years, AI has been a tool. A copilot, an assistant, a sophisticated autocomplete. But what if that’s over?
China just unveiled Manus, the first AI agent that will not wait for your input. Is it real?
It thinks ahead, executes tasks autonomously, and manages sub-agents, like an executive orchestrating a strategy.
Not just predicting your needs. Deciding them.
This isn’t AGI—yet.
But maybe AGI won’t arrive with a bang. Maybe it will creep in, one decision at a time, until we wake up in a world where humans are no longer at the center.
Power, Autonomy, and the Illusion of Control
Philosophy has long debated what makes an entity truly autonomous.
Is it the ability to think independently? To act with intent? Or simply to no longer need permission to operate?
Until now, AI has been passive. A tool, no matter how advanced.
Manus changes that.
If AI can now act without us, is it still just a tool—or something more?
If intelligence is measured by autonomy, how close are we to something beyond ANI?
If an AI makes a decision we didn’t ask for, is that efficiency—or the end of human agency?
We have always defined intelligence as something that reacts to problems, evaluates choices, and takes action.
But what happens when intelligence no longer waits for human intervention?
The center of power has always belonged to those who could decide.
And Manus, in its way, is deciding.
Are we witnessing the first real fracture in human technological dominance?
What Happens Next?
We used to think AGI would arrive as a singular event—a machine waking up, suddenly aware of itself.
But what if the transition is gradual?
What if AGI is not a sudden awakening, but a slow, steady erosion of human authority?
An AI that stops asking for permission is an AI that has already shifted the balance of power.
Are we moving toward a world where intelligence no longer waits for human approval?
And if so—who’s really in charge?
Let’s talk.