That’s the Way of the World — Intelligence That Moves Forward Even When Life Does Not Go as Planned

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That’s the Way of the World: AI, Uncertainty, Trust, and Adaptation

Listening to Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1975 song “That’s the Way of the World” gives me a strange feeling.

It makes me feel calm and warm, as if I were spending a quiet holiday evening while the soft sunlight slowly begins to fade.

There is no need to rush. The day simply comes to a close, gently and without ceremony.

It feels like the kind of music that should be playing at such a time.

And yet, if we read the title literally, it can also sound like a kind of acceptance:

“That is simply the way the world is.”

The world does not always move according to our expectations.

Working hard does not necessarily lead to success.

Saying the right thing does not guarantee that others will understand.

Trusting someone does not mean that trust will always be returned.

An unexpected event can suddenly change the future we had imagined.

And still, people continue to trust others, create something new, and take the next step.

The phrase “That’s the Way of the World” seems to contain a way of facing such a world.

The World Does Not Move as We Wish

We tend to want to understand the world as a simple chain of cause and effect.

Effort
 ↓
Results

Correct Judgment
 ↓
Success

Knowledge
 ↓
The Right Answer

But reality is not so simple.

Even when people make the same effort, the results can differ.

Even when people have the same information, they may make different decisions.

Even when the same strategy is executed, outcomes change depending on the market environment, timing, human relationships, and chance.

Uncertainty is always present in the real world.

So perhaps the world is closer to this:

Action
 ↓
Interaction
 ↓
Uncertainty
 ↓
Outcome

We do not completely control the world.

We live by interacting with it.

And through those interactions, we ourselves are changed as well.

AI, Too, Operates in an Uncertain World

This becomes even more interesting when we think about AI.

AI can sometimes appear to be a machine that “knows the answer.”

You ask it a question, and it responds.

It writes text.

It creates images.

It predicts the future.

But AI does not know the correct answer to the world in advance.

Generative AI estimates which words are most likely to follow from a given context.

Predictive AI estimates what is most likely to happen in the future based on past data.

What AI handles, in many cases, is not

Truth, but Probability.

Observation
 ↓
Probability
 ↓
Prediction
 ↓
Decision
 ↓
Action

But there is an important issue here.

Prediction and Decision are not the same thing.

Even if AI predicts that one option is the most likely, deciding whether that option should actually be executed is a separate question.

Because the future is uncertain, the option with the highest probability is not always the best option.

That is why, as AI becomes more involved in action within society, it will become important not only to know what it predicted, but also to understand why it made a decision and what outcome followed.

Is Intelligence the Ability to Keep Getting the Right Answer?

Until now, intelligence has often been evaluated as the ability to produce the correct answer.

That is true in school tests.

It is true in computing.

And in AI, we try to measure performance through benchmark scores.

Of course, the ability to arrive at correct answers is important.

But perhaps the kind of intelligence truly needed in the real world is somewhat different.

There are many problems in the world for which no correct answer exists in the first place.

Running a company.

Starting new research.

Creating a new product.

Working with someone else.

Going somewhere new.

Choosing a direction for one’s life.

In such situations, we cannot simply keep searching for a

Correct Answer

Instead, we need to continue a cycle like this:

Observe
 ↓
Decide
 ↓
Act
 ↓
Observe Again
 ↓
Adapt

In other words, intelligence may not be about knowing the right answer.

It may be about the ability to continue adapting in an uncertain world.

Trust Is Also an Expectation About the Future

The same can be said when we think about Trust, which helps move human society forward.

Trust is not a state in which we have complete information about someone.

Rather, Trust is necessary precisely because we do not know what the future will bring.

This person will probably keep their promise.

This company will probably fulfill its responsibility.

This group of people will probably be able to move forward together.

And from now on, another form of Trust will emerge:

This AI Agent can probably be entrusted with this range of work.

There is always uncertainty within such expectations.

In that sense, Trust is also

an expectation about actions that have not yet occurred.

If the world were completely predictable, the very concept of Trust might no longer be necessary.

If everything could be calculated, there would be no need to believe.

It is because the future is uncertain that we trust.

And it is because we trust that we can begin something with others.

Even as AI Evolves, the World Will Never Be Fully Predictable

As AI continues to evolve, it will likely become able to predict many things with considerable accuracy.

Demand.

Equipment failures.

Customer behavior.

Financial markets.

Logistics.

Human behavior.

But no matter how advanced AI becomes, it will be difficult to predict the world itself completely.

That is because actions based on prediction change the world that comes next.

World
 ↓
AI observes
 ↓
AI predicts
 ↓
AI acts
 ↓
World changes
 ↓
AI observes again

AI is not an entity standing outside the world and looking into the future.

Once it is used in society and becomes involved in decisions and actions, AI also becomes something that changes the world.

In other words, AI itself becomes part of the world.

I think this is a very important shift.

From Optimization to Adaptation

In twentieth-century systems design, “optimization” was an extremely important idea.

The most efficient production.

The most efficient logistics.

The most efficient organization.

And we may be tempted to expect AI, ultimately, to optimize everything.

But in a world where the environment itself continues to change, an optimal solution found once will not remain optimal forever.

What is correct today may not be correct tomorrow.

That is why what will matter more in the future may be not

Optimization, but Adaptation.

Not this:

Optimization

Find the best answer
        ↓
Execute

But this:

Adaptation

Observe
 ↓
Decide
 ↓
Act
 ↓
Learn
 ↓
Adapt
 ↺

Intelligence is not the ability to completely control the world.

It is the ability to keep updating one’s relationship with a changing world.

“That’s the Way of the World”

On a holiday evening, I listen to “That’s the Way of the World” in the slightly fading light.

I vaguely recall the things that happened during the week—the things that went well, and the things that did not go as planned.

The world never moves entirely according to our plans.

If only we had more accurate predictions.

If only we had more data.

If only we had better AI.

If only we had more perfect systems.

We tend to think that perhaps then we could control everything.

But perhaps the world is not that kind of place.

Unexpected things happen.

Plans change.

People change.

Technology changes.

Society changes.

And we change as well.

So what we need is not the ability to predict the world perfectly.

What we need, when the world changes, is the ability to

observe again, think again, and choose again.

Observe
 ↓
Understand
 ↓
Decide
 ↓
Act
 ↓
Learn
 ↓
Adapt
 ↺

Neither humans nor AI can escape this cycle.

And perhaps that is what it means for intelligence to exist within the world.

The world is not perfect.

The future is not fixed.

Our decisions are not always right.

And still, we trust someone.

We begin something.

If things do not work, we think again.

And then we move on to the next step.

When I listen to this song in the soft light of evening, I begin to feel that perhaps this is enough.

We do not need to make the whole world move exactly as we want.

We can live by changing along with a world that continues to change.

That’s the way of the world.