Five stages
The road to the singularity
The infrastructure singularity arrives in five stages: build it, sense it, tokenize it, automate it and connect it. Each stage rests on the one before it, and each can start today with a small project.
The stages
From a built asset to one machine
A stage finishes when the next one has something to work with. A sensor needs an asset, a token needs data, a robot needs a shared record of what to fix, and the operating system needs all of them.
01
Build it
Projects reach financial close
Every later stage runs on physical assets, so the road starts with the roads, plants, ports and networks that PPPs already deliver. Jordan has $86 billion of them in development, and each one that reaches financial close (the point where the lenders agree to pay and construction can begin) becomes a place where the next four stages can happen.
A PPP is the right tool for this stage, because it brings the government’s land and need together with a company’s money and skill. The contract usually runs for decades, which gives the asset a long and steady life to grow into the later stages.
Start with
Design every new project with room for sensors, data cabling and a power supply for the stages ahead. It costs little at the start and a lot to add later.
What it leaves behind
A built asset with a long contract behind it
02
Sense it
Every asset starts to report
Sensors on pipes, bridges, panels and pumps turn an asset into a source of data. The owner sees what it saves, what it costs to run and how often it breaks, and the bank sees the same numbers.
Sensors are small and cheap, and many run for years on a small battery or a solar cell. A few hundred of them can cover a whole water network. The readings go to one shared place, so the owner, the government and the lenders all read the same figures.
Start with
Pick one asset and measure one thing this month, such as water lost, power used or trips taken. Write down what it costs and what it teaches.
What it leaves behind
A steady stream of data from each asset
03
Tokenize it
Ownership and revenue go digital
Once an asset reports its own numbers, its ownership and income can be split into small digital shares, called tokens. A token is a record on a shared ledger that proves who owns which share. A project that was too small for a large bank becomes the right size for many small investors, and a neighborhood can own a piece of its own solar roof.
Because the asset reports its own numbers, every owner can see exactly what a share earns. Tokens that stand for real assets should sit under the same laws and regulators as any other investment, so the first ones go to qualified investors and open to the public as the rules mature.
Start with
Begin with a pilot small enough for one regulator and one legal team to review, such as a rooftop solar project on a school.
What it leaves behind
Shares that anyone can hold and trade
04
Automate it
AI and robots run the routine
AI reads the data the moment it arrives and prepares the studies, contracts and tenders. Robots lay, weld and inspect, so the next copy of a project costs less than the last one and a repair happens before the failure.
Automation works in two layers. AI plans and decides: it spots problems in the data, writes the first draft of a contract and orders the parts. Robots do the physical work: they inspect, clean, repair and, later, build. People stay in charge of the goals and check the results.
Start with
Hand one routine job to a machine, such as reading meters or checking inspection photos, and keep a person watching the result until it earns trust.
What it leaves behind
Faster, cheaper copies of every project
05
Connect it
One system runs them all
When assets report, trade and repair themselves, a shared operating system can link them. A fix found on one water tank reaches every tank like it, and a storm that crosses one country is handled across all the assets in its path. This is the infrastructure singularity.
Connecting starts inside one city or one sector and grows outward, the way the internet began as a few linked computers. EarthOS is the shared software for it, written by many people and run by every country.
Start with
Agree on open data standards at the start of every project, so assets from different companies can talk to each other later.
What it leaves behind
One connected system, run by EarthOS
An example
One water plant, five stages
The stages are easier to see on a single project. Here is how one imagined desalination plant moves along the road. The same path fits a bridge, a rail line, a school or a solar farm.
01
Build it
A consortium, a group of companies that join forces, finances and builds a solar-powered desalination plant in the south. The contract runs for 25 years and the plant is designed with space for sensors.
02
Sense it
Sensors on the pumps, pipes and meters show how much water the plant makes, how much power it uses and where the network leaks. The ministry, the operator and the bank all read the same dashboard.
03
Tokenize it
Part of the plant’s income is split into digital shares. A pension fund, a school and thousands of families each hold some, and each can see what their share earns.
04
Automate it
A robot replaces a worn pump seal on the night the sensors flag it, and the AI orders the part and updates the record. The next plant is designed from what this one taught, and costs less.
05
Connect it
During a heat wave the plant makes more water in the cool hours, the power grid sends it spare solar energy and the trains shift their timetables. The three systems agree on what to do without a meeting.
The stages overlap
Every project can take the next step the day it is built
The road has no gate between stages. A water plant can be financed, fitted with sensors and offered as tokens in the same program, and a new bridge can arrive already instrumented. The earlier a project is designed for the later stages, the less it costs to add them.
The stages also repeat at every size. A $10,000 sensor pilot on a school water tank runs the same five stages as a $1 billion port, only faster and cheaper, and what the small project teaches goes straight into the big one. That is the idea behind the PPP pyramid.
Who starts where
Every kind of organization has a first step
Nobody has to build the whole road. Each kind of organization owns one or two stages and hands its results to the next. The organization guides show where each one of Jordan’s 96 kinds of organization can begin.
Stages 1 and 2
Government and ministries
Publish the pipeline, write contracts that ask for sensors and open data, and set the rules for digital ownership.
Stages 1 and 4
Developers and builders
Build every project sensor-ready, and bring in prefabricated parts and robots to lower the cost of the next copy.
Stage 3
Banks and investors
Finance the first projects, learn how digital shares work and back the pilots that prove them.
Stages 2, 4 and 5
Technology companies
Make the sensors, the AI, the robots and the software that joins them, and keep them open to each other.
Stage 2
Cities and utilities
Measure water, power, waste and traffic first. The data pays for the next stage by showing where money is lost.
Every stage
Schools and universities
Run the small projects, train the people who will build and operate the machine and share what they learn.
What can slow the road
Four things to get right along the way
- Rules
- Laws were written for paper contracts. Digital ownership, shared data and machine decisions need clear rules, and regulators need time to learn. Small pilots give them real cases to study.
- Skills
- Every stage needs people who can build, read data and run machines. Schools, universities and training programs have to start preparing them now, because a trained engineer takes years to arrive.
- Security
- A connected system gives attackers one big door to try. Every stage has to include strong locks, backups and the ability to run each part on its own if the link is cut.
- Trust
- People will use a system they can see into. Open records, plain explanations and a way to challenge a decision keep the public on board at every stage.
Where it starts
Jordan stands at stage one with $86 billion
- $86B
- of PPP and infrastructure projects in development across Jordan
- $46B
- of them in Aqaba
Every one of these projects is a chance to build the first stage and plan for the other four. Article 15 of Jordan’s PPP Law lets any private company take its own PPP idea to the government directly, so a team with a small project can start without waiting for a tender. Pick the stage that matches your organization, and start with one small project.
New guide
The golden age of PPPs in Jordan
All 23 sector guides and all 96 organization guides in one free guide to Jordan’s $86 billion.
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