Better Futures

Recovering Culture and Innovation in an Age of Machines

If neuroscientific research can be trusted, finding the future will require escaping the trap of linear, puzzle-solving thinking. For several generations we have come to believe that progress is largely a matter of applying enough intelligence, enough data, and enough computation to a clearly defined problem. Define the puzzle correctly, gather the right dataset, and the solution will follow. This mindset has become so familiar that it often feels indistinguishable from intelligence itself.

Yet there are growing signs that this mode of thinking is reaching its limits.