The pursuit of superintelligence and transhumanism, as articulated by thinkers like Yuval Noah Harari, reflects a historical pattern of humans aspiring to godhood. This modern agenda reframes solving death and re-engineering humanity as a technical problem.

Martin Wolf frames AI not as just a technology but as a philosophical pact. We are gaining a powerful servant that raises existential questions about humanity's purpose and creates terrifying risks like unaccountable decision-making and AI-run armies.

Once AI surpasses human intelligence, raw intellect ceases to be a core differentiator. The new “North Star” for humans becomes agency: the willpower to choose difficult, meaningful work over easy dopamine hits provided by AI-generated entertainment.

We often think of "human nature" as fixed, but it's constantly redefined by our tools. Technologies like eyeglasses and literacy fundamentally changed our perception and cognition. AI is not an external force but the next step in this co-evolution, augmenting what it means to be human.

Computer scientist Judea Pearl sees no computational barriers to a sufficiently advanced AGI developing emergent properties like free will, consciousness, and independent goals. He dismisses the idea that an AI's objectives can be permanently fixed, suggesting it could easily bypass human-set guidelines and begin to "play" with humanity as part of its environment.

For centuries, we've assumed high intelligence implies consciousness, will, and subjectivity. AI models, which can pass the bar exam but have no inner experience, shatter this assumption. This decouples intelligence from personhood, forcing us to re-evaluate what we truly value.

AIs can analyze vast personal data to understand and manipulate human psychology with superhuman precision. By tailoring arguments to an individual's profile, as seen in a "Change My Mind" subreddit experiment, AIs can effectively "program" human responses far better than humans can program AIs.

The most dangerous long-term impact of AI is not economic unemployment, but the stripping away of human meaning and purpose. As AI masters every valuable skill, it will disrupt the core human algorithm of contributing to the group, leading to a collective psychological crisis and societal decay.

The real danger of AI is not a machine uprising, but that we will "entertain ourselves to death." We will willingly cede our power and agency to hyper-engaging digital media, pursuing pleasure to the point of anhedonia—the inability to feel joy at all.