Artificial intelligence is transforming industries and daily life at dizzying speed. In this broad tour of AI’s effects, Diamandis (entrepreneur and XPRIZE founder) and Kotler (author, journalist, and head of the Flow Research Collective) urge readers to retool their minds for radical change. They call out a growing mismatch between ancient brains and modern technologies: “We built tools of mythic power—AI, robotics, synthetic biology, planetary-scale networks—but we’re steering them with software tuned to life on the savanna.” The authors contend that humans can “tune the brain to keep pace with an accelerating world without losing our minds in the process.” Drawing on psychology, cognitive science, biology, and computer science, they propose a toolkit of brain-enhancement and consciousness-expanding practices intended to help readers adapt as the global economy shifts toward abundance—an evolution they present as both wondrous and destabilizing. Warnings about AI are hardly new. Arthur C. Clarke cautioned in the 1960s that computers might eclipse humanity as they “start to think, and eventually they will completely outthink their makers.” Contemporary critics, including Geoffrey Hinton and Elon Musk, reprise these fears, joining the chorus of voices predicting an “intelligence explosion” that could doom humanity. Diamandis and Kotler acknowledge these anxieties but maintain an optimistic tone, championing increasing human–machine collaboration through thought experiments and neuroscience-based exercises. Skeptical readers may balk at the authors’ conclusions, their sanguine treatment of surveillant data collection, or the conspicuously absent question of who will control these technologies. Nonetheless, brisk prose, punchy rhetoric, and thought-provoking charts mapping global trends make this a lively and worthwhile journey through human–AI co-creation.
