About DEMISMATCH
Building the technological future that serves human nature.
The Fork
We're approaching a technological singularity. AI that understands human psychology better than we understand ourselves. Full-immersion virtual reality. Brain-computer interfaces. Genetic editing. Neural enhancement.
This technology will either exploit every vulnerability humans have — running the extraction formula faster and harder than ever before — or it will finally meet human needs in ways nothing else has.
Which future we get depends entirely on whether the people building these technologies understand human nature.
DEMISMATCH exists to make sure they do.
The Framework
The DEMISMATCH framework provides the spec sheet for human nature — what our biology actually needs to thrive, based on 300,000 years of evolution.
It identifies the systematic gap between what humans evolved for and what modern environments provide. It documents how this mismatch has been exploited for profit. And it defines what technology, architecture, policy, and community would need to look like to actually work with human nature rather than against it.
The evolutionary psychology isn't the destination — it's the foundation. The exploitation documentation isn't doom-mongering — it's the warning. The augmented future is the actual point.
De-mismatch first. Then augment. The most human post-human.
The Principle
Before any intervention — pharmaceutical, technological, therapeutic — ask which ancestral needs are going unmet.
Before any enhancement — AI assistant, neural interface, virtual world — establish baseline human thriving.
You can't augment broken. Technology applied to a depleted human creates dependency. Technology applied to a thriving human extends capability.
The sequence matters.
The Stakes
A 29-year-old was euthanized because psychiatrists said "there's nothing more we can do" — without ever trying environmental interventions. That's the cost of not understanding mismatch.
Billions spent on social platforms that increase loneliness. Food engineered to override satiety. Dating apps that profit from failed matching. Medication that suppresses signals without addressing what they're signaling. That's the cost of building technology without the spec sheet.
We're about to build AI systems that will shape human experience more profoundly than anything before. If those systems are built by people who don't understand human nature, we get the dystopian singularity.
If they're built by people who do — we might finally get it right.
Who Made This
DEMISMATCH synthesizes decades of research in evolutionary psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, and environmental design into a practical framework for understanding and building for human nature.
The framework is open. Fork it, improve it, implement it. No one owns truth about human nature.
The Evidence Base
The DEMISMATCH framework draws on peer-reviewed research across multiple disciplines:
Evolutionary Psychology
Tooby, Cosmides, Buss, Pinker
Anthropology
Sahlins, Lee, Dunbar, Hrdy
Social Psychology
Baumeister, Cacioppo, Haidt
Public Health
WHO, Lancet, CDC research
Technology & Futures
Automation, AI alignment, VR presence, human-computer interaction
Get Involved
We're looking for:
- •AI developers building systems that serve human nature
- •VR/AR designers creating presence technology
- •Architects designing for Dunbar-scale community
- •Researchers studying environmental interventions
- •Community builders forming tribes
- •Policy makers rethinking mental health, urban planning, work
The future is being built now. Build it right.
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