The End of Necessary Adulthood: A Theory of Human Agency Under Omnipresent Superintelligence

Advanced-AI debates usually ask whether machines will remain aligned with human values. This paper examines the reciprocal question: whether humans would retain the capacities required for meaningful agency if artificial systems became persistently more competent, reliable and pervasive than human decision-makers. It develops the end of necessary adulthood hypothesis as a conditional theory, not a forecast. Functional adulthood is defined through consequential authorship, judgment under uncertainty, care, answerability, self-regulation and collective agency. The framework identifies a five-part mechanism—competence concentration, rational deference, responsibility displacement, intergenerational attenuation and institutional lock-in—and distinguishes three rival trajectories: infantilization, liberation and bifurcation.