Post Scarcity Storytelling: Narrative Warfare?

WIRED’s Steven Levy had a great chat with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis about what happens after the AI apocalypse. Not the collapse kind, the weird, hopeful one. Where AGI cracks fusion energy, water becomes limitless thanks to next-gen desalination, and the nastiest diseases are wiped out like a living wage for Hollywood screen scribblers.

Intrigued, I asked ChatGPT to explore some of these scenarios. The most interesting answer wasn’t about technology. It mentioned “narrative warfare,” a phrase that felt futuristic and familiar. If material needs are solved and everyone’s living longer, healthier lives, then the real battles shift away from territory and toward meaning.

Storytellers have always been the architects of power. I'm fascinated by the nudge divisions of governments and how narratives were crafted around various geopolitical conflicts to justify war.

The Catholic Church didn’t conquer Europe with swords. They did it with parables, saints’ legends, and the ultimate hero’s journey starring a carpenter’s son.

Hitler’s propagandists weren’t just making posters; they were crafting a national mythology that turned neighbors into enemies.

Madison Avenue didn’t sell products in the 1960s. They sold narratives about what kind of person you could become.

Just today, The Wall Street Journal has a piece about how the Air Force engineered and fostered stories about aliens and UFOs to cover up the testing of top-secret aircraft. 

Every revolution, every empire, every social movement has had storytellers at the center, shaping how people see themselves and their world. I’ve just never heard it called“narrative warfare.”

So I asked my LLM pals: What jobs emerge when storytelling becomes the main vector of influence, identity, and power?

Here are six career paths, some speculative, some already forming, for writers, directors, designers, and narrative thinkers in a post-AGI, post-scarcity world.

Narrative Strategist: Governments, think tanks, activist groups, and humanitarian orgs all need people who understand how to shape belief through story. A Narrative Strategist builds campaigns, cultural myths, and long-arc messaging to influence public perception. Less “spin doctor,” more mythmaker.

Think: Multi-season arcs for political movements. Hero journeys for climate action. Memetic storytelling to counter misinformation.

Simulated Experience Architect: In a world where AGI can render entire realities on demand, the line between story and simulation blurs completely. Simulated Experience Architects design immersive narrative environments for everything from training and therapy to entertainment and propaganda.

Think: ARGs that double as conflict resolution tools. VR history museums where participants “live” the story. Interactive onboarding built as a personal hero’s journey.

Memory Engineer: As synthetic media floods every channel, the ability to control or preserve memory becomes a career. Memory Engineers work at the intersection of narrative, ethics, and forensics—curating truth, rewriting personal histories (with consent), or preserving analog records.

Think: Narrative preservation for displaced cultures. Autobiography assembly from digital footprints. Truth curation platforms that combat AGI-generated revisionism.

Culture Engineer: Brand is belief. In the future, corporations, cities, and even nations will hire storytellers to craft cultural identities from scratch. Culture Engineers develop internal narratives that shape how groups see themselves—and how they’re seen by others.

Think: Founding myths for start-ups. Redemption arcs for fallen institutions. Narrative scaffolding for decentralized online communities.

Counter-Propaganda Analyst: Storytellers trained to dissect rather than create. These are the narrative cryptographers—tracking, decoding, and neutralizing weaponized storylines spreading through media ecosystems. They work alongside cybersecurity teams, think tanks, and social platforms.

Think: Reverse-engineering viral conspiracy arcs. Building narrative firewalls. Inoculating populations against memetic warfare.

Chief Myth Officer (CMO?): At the highest level, every major system—corporate, national, or ideological—needs a keeper of its story. Someone who understands that the values, rituals, and language of a group must evolve without losing the emotional core. That’s the job of a Chief Myth Officer.

Think: Emotional canon management. Ritual design. Long-term myth consistency across internal and external messaging.

Why This Matters (Especially If You’re Raising Storytellers)

My older son is a recent college graduate working as an author, game designer, and professional dungeon master, while my younger son is pursuing filmmaking at the Savannah College of Art and Design. They're both learning the fundamentals, structure, character, and genre, but they're also stepping into a future where narrative stakes will be more than cultural. They'll be strategic.

Storytelling doesn’t just entertain. It shapes reality. If AGI doesn’t kill us and collabs with us to create a post-scarcity world, the next revolution could be narrative. And the people who know how to build, decode, and weaponize a good story will be its architects.