Sign-In
Cart
The External Mind: What Twelve Information Revolutions Teach Us About the Age of AI
Paperback
General ComputersGeneral SociologyHistory & Philosophy of Science
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 6 2026
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.58
Height: 0.41 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Twenty-four centuries ago, one of the smartest people who ever lived was certain that a new information technology would ruin the human mind. We have been having the same argument ever since - about the printing press, the telegraph, the television, the smartphone, and now artificial intelligence.
The External Mind tells the story of twelve moments when human beings took a piece of their own mind - memory, calculation, language, judgement - and set it down outside themselves. Each one handed us extraordinary new power. Each one carried a hidden cost. And the deciding factor was never the technology itself, but four very human things: who was allowed to use it, who was taught to understand it, who owned it, and how fast our wisdom could catch up to our new power.
Written by a physicist and AI-builder, this is neither breathless hype nor doom. It is a compass - a clear-eyed, surprising, and genuinely hopeful guide to the most important question of our time.
Because artificial intelligence is not the first tool to change what it means to be human. It is the twelfth. And the past tells us exactly what to watch for.
For readers of Yuval Noah Harari, James Gleick, and Marshall McLuhan - and for anyone trying to think clearly about the age of AI.
Also in
History & Philosophy of Science
The Formative Years of Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein's Princeton Lectures
Renn, Jürgen
Gutfreund, Hanoch
Hardcover
The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms That Sustain Life
Eklöf, Johan
Hardcover
The Mystery of Life Energy: Biofield Healing, Phantom Limbs, Group Energetics, and Gaia Consciousness
Leskowitz, Eric
Paperback
The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans--And Other Possible Phenomena
Pearl, Mike
Paperback
The Self-Actualizing Cosmos: The Akasha Revolution in Science and Human Consciousness
Laszlo, Ervin
Paperback
The Agi Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence
Roose, Kevin
Hardcover
The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie
Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda
Hardcover
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Kaplan, Matt
Hardcover
Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites
Martins, Dino
Hardcover
Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and the Human Drive to Understand
Lombrozo, Tania
Hardcover
The Earth Said Remember Me: How to Revive Our Memories and Restore the Planet
Mark, Jason Dove
Hardcover
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI
Veliz, Carissa
Hardcover
The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God
Strobel, Lee
Paperback
Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe
Meyer, Stephen C.
Paperback
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
Leighton, Robert B.
Sands, Matthew
Feynman, Richard P.
Paperback
Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, the Problem of Blame, and the Future of Forgiveness
Harden, Kathryn Paige
Hardcover
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Munroe, Randall
Hardcover
Magnifica Humanitas: Encyclical on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence
Prevost, Robert
Paperback
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda
Paperback
What Sheep Think about the Weather: How to Listen to What Animals Are Trying to Say
Thomas, Amelia
Paperback
2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition: How Artificial Intelligence Informs Our Future
Lennox, John C.
Hardcover
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
Pinker, Steven
Hardcover
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
Feynman, Richard P.
Paperback
Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being
Theise, Neil
Paperback
Everything All at Once: How to Think Like a Science Guy, Solve Any Problem, and Make a Better World
Nye, Bill
Paperback
Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America
Kieffer, Kira Ganga
Hardcover
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
Pinker, Steven
Paperback
Aristotle's Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science
Feser, Edward
Paperback
Do Aliens Speak Physics?: And Other Questions about Science and the Nature of Reality
Whiteson, Daniel
Warner, Andy
Hardcover
Technology and Barbarism: Or: How Billionaires Will Save Us from the End of the World
Nieva, Michel
Paperback
(Super) Natural Science: The Real Science of Superheroes, Mythic Creatures, and the (Sci-Fi) Universe
Liu, Charles
Paperback
A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)
Oakley, Barbara
Paperback
The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience
Thompson, Evan
Frank, Adam
Gleiser, Marcelo
Paperback
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
Kennedy, Robert F., Jr.
Hardcover
Scientific Facts in the Bible: 100 Reasons to Believe the Bible is Supernatural in Origin
Comfort, Ray
Paperback
The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms That Sustain Life
Eklöf, Johan
Paperback
The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--And Its Implications
Deutsch, David
Paperback
The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self
Wayland-Smith, Ellen
Paperback
For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
Sagan, Sasha
Paperback
Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe
Meyer, Stephen C.
Hardcover
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change
Conway, Erik M.
Oreskes, Naomi
Paperback
Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do about It
Facciani, Matthew
Paperback
Ignorance: What We Do Not Know, Cannot Know, Must Not Know, and Refuse to Know
Szpiro, George G.
Hardcover
Everyday Extraordinary: A Scientist Ponders a Lifetime of Magical, Bizarre, and Paranormal Experiences
Markovsky, Barry
Hardcover
Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution
Miller, Kenneth R.
Paperback
Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World
Metzl, Jamie
Paperback
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake
Novella, Steven
Paperback
The Passing of the Great Race: The Racial Basis of European History (With Original 1916 Illustrations in Full Color)
Grant, Madison
Hardcover
The Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science
Schneider, Michael S.
Paperback
How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Smil, Vaclav
Paperback
Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe
Greene, Brian
Paperback
War on Ivermectin: The Medicine That Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic
Kory, Pierre
McCarthy, Jenna
Hardcover
This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking
Brockman, John
Paperback
Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning
Barad, Karen
Paperback
Moral AI: And How We Get There
Borg, Jana Schaich
Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter
Conitzer, Vincent
Paperback
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
Farahany, Nita
Paperback
Beyond the Quantum: A Quest for the Origin and Hidden Meaning of Quantum Mechanics
Valentini, Antony
Hardcover
How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics
Hayles, N. Katherine
Paperback
Forgotten Landscapes: How Native Americans Created Pre-Columbian North America and What We Can Learn from It
Rice, Stanley A.
Hardcover