The chapter opens with two contrasting images of creation: Michelangelo’s God giving life to Adam in the Sistine Chapel, and James Cameron’s Terminator designed to extinguish human life. These images, separated by five centuries, illustrate humanity’s tendency to embody intelligence, whether divine or artificial.
The author introduces the concept of the “embodiment factor” - the ratio between computational and communication abilities. Humans can communicate around 2,000 bits per minute, while machines can exchange 60 billion bits per minute. This difference is illustrated through a salary metaphor: if human bandwidth equals a $2,000 monthly salary, machine bandwidth would exceed the UK’s national budget.
Using Bauby’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” as a key metaphor, the chapter explores how human intelligence is fundamentally “locked in,” with limited ability to communicate our thoughts. Despite these limitations, humans engage in seemingly “wasteful” communication like small talk because it builds crucial contextual understanding.
The Amazon supply chain serves as a practical example of machine intelligence, demonstrating how automated systems must “second-guess” themselves when making decisions under time constraints. This leads to a critique of popular notions of superintelligence and the technological singularity, which the author dismisses as “hooey.” Using the Top Trumps card game analogy, he argues that intelligence isn’t a simple linear quality but varies by context and application.
The chapter concludes by proposing to use machine intelligence as a mirror for understanding human intelligence, moving beyond hype to focus on how we can better understand ourselves and make informed choices about AI’s role in society. This sets up the book’s exploration of what makes us uniquely human - the “atomic human” that cannot be replicated by machines.
Summary
The chapter opens with two contrasting images of creation: Michelangelo’s God giving life to Adam in the Sistine Chapel, and James Cameron’s Terminator designed to extinguish human life. These images, separated by five centuries, illustrate humanity’s tendency to embody intelligence, whether divine or artificial.
The author introduces the concept of the “embodiment factor” - the ratio between computational and communication abilities. Humans can communicate around 2,000 bits per minute, while machines can exchange 60 billion bits per minute. This difference is illustrated through a salary metaphor: if human bandwidth equals a $2,000 monthly salary, machine bandwidth would exceed the UK’s national budget.
Using Bauby’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” as a key metaphor, the chapter explores how human intelligence is fundamentally “locked in,” with limited ability to communicate our thoughts. Despite these limitations, humans engage in seemingly “wasteful” communication like small talk because it builds crucial contextual understanding.
The Amazon supply chain serves as a practical example of machine intelligence, demonstrating how automated systems must “second-guess” themselves when making decisions under time constraints. This leads to a critique of popular notions of superintelligence and the technological singularity, which the author dismisses as “hooey.” Using the Top Trumps card game analogy, he argues that intelligence isn’t a simple linear quality but varies by context and application.
The chapter concludes by proposing to use machine intelligence as a mirror for understanding human intelligence, moving beyond hype to focus on how we can better understand ourselves and make informed choices about AI’s role in society. This sets up the book’s exploration of what makes us uniquely human - the “atomic human” that cannot be replicated by machines.