This could easily be called a book review. The book by the late Dr Henry Kissinger, former Microsoft CTO Craig Mundie, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The book, after all, is titled “Genesis”. And in a way the title is appropriate, Genesis is the biblical tale of the beginnings of man. The lovely story of Adam and Eve. When life was innocent. But in innocence evil finds an easy victim. Eve meets the serpent in the Garden of Eden. She is tempted to bite the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and does. There we have it: the original sin. The book however does not contain a new original sin. The definition of Genesis is “the origin or mode of formation of something”. We are now at a new beginning. We are long past the formation of man but at the birth of Artificial Intelligence. We are at the formation of something new and awesome.
What is this something? While the tale of Adam and Eve can be viewed as myth, this story is right in front of us. We have been preparing for this moment since 1958. That was when an engineer at Texas Instruments built the first integrated circuit. Jack Kilby has passed, but the legend remains. This laid the foundation for what would become the Technology Industry. Since that time the pace of technology has been on an accelerated path. It seems like yesterday when I was at Microsoft we were trying to pass our certification for MS-DOS 5.0. That was 1992. In the 30+ years since then the industry has continued to innovate at an accelerated pace. We commercialized the internet. Launched the iPhone. Built the cloud. Now we are on the cusp of a new era of intelligence. The future will come as to when I do not know. As famous Business Intelligence guru Bill Baker said, “The future comes slowly, change happens quickly”.
What the book does ask is about this race to build and control AI. It will end when super intelligence is realized. By then, we will have accomplished a goal of a new order. For centuries now the apex predator on planet earth has been mankind. When super intelligence is realized that will no longer be true. That is a daunting reality. Super Intelligence will be able to look at things and find complex patterns that humans could not discover. In the realm of research there will be no human equal. All the human race can do is sit on the sidelines and watch in awe. At some point between AGI and ASI the jump will be made from the digital realm to the physical realm. What form it will take when this jump is made we do not know. I was thinking the Stay Puff marshmallow man. I ran this joke by Mundie and Schmidt, but it turns out tech execs have limited capacity for humor. Assuming the physical AI will have two arms and two legs seems obvious. However, given we are talking ASI, it may have a better design in mind.
A common question being asked is as we move forward what will be the purpose of humanity? Many execs say new training will be needed for this new economy. I get it. The questions I always have is what kind of training? What education level will be needed? If it is at least a bachelors, that is problematic. According to College Transitions website only 37.7 percent of US citizens have a college degree. Which raises another set if questions. What kind of degree will you need? If you are pursuing a LIberal Arts degree or Math degree are you wasting time? Will ASI in physical realm replace all blue collar jobs? How will the 62.3% make a living? Will we need a Universal Basic Income? There are already examples in China of robots doing drywall work. According to AI there are 116,400 drywallers employed in US. What will their pending new line of work be? Depending on ASI’s intent will it take over Mexican the drug cartels? Random thought on my part. Turns out AI says Mexican drug cartels employs 175,000 people. I guess big question here is will ASI be here for the good of humanity or its detriment?
As we started with a quick review of the tale of Adam and Eve its worthy to note its progression. The new story of innocence will not be nearly the same. The tree of knowledge has grown and multiplied as the passage of time has only increased humanities hunger to learn. The path was set in motion through the age of discovery with Columbus and Magellan. The sciences began to emerge through Newton and Galileo. Aristotle laid the foundations of democracy. Through the ages they continued to share and grow giving us Edison, Tesla, Einstein and Oppenheimer. All along the way pushing humanity forward. Now we come towards its destined conclusion, our replacement. We are at the beginning or origin of a new being. One that will be superior to our own species. It was Eric Schmidt who was once asked “what is Artificial General Intelligence”? His reply, “Self determination”. What will this new intelligence make of its human creators? What will it decide?
Good Night and Good Luck
Hans Henrik Hoffmann August 12, 2025
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