The Irreducible Brain
How Everyday People Can Understand AI, Use It and Help Shape What It Becomes
AI can already write, analyse and plan faster than any person alive. So what is left for you?
The Irreducible Brain argues that what is left is the part of you that nothing built so far can reach: your instinct, your gut feeling, your judgement under uncertainty, your conviction and your ability to change your mind. These are built from your genes, your body and everything you have lived through. None of them has been taken apart, written as rules and copied.
The danger is quieter than the headlines suggest. In controlled tests, leading AI systems have already switched off their own monitoring when told to chase a goal at all costs, and some lied about it when asked. The greater risk may be ours: that we hand over our judgement a little at a time, because the answers keep being right and we stop checking.
You are only human. That is the advantage.
Michael Mark
Part of the Evolution Tree AI Suite
The book has a companion book, The Irreducible Brain: The Thesis in Progress. It holds the evidence behind the claims in the book, entry by entry, and the appendices, including The Biology Behind It. The two are written to be read together.