| Category: | Non-Fiction |
|---|---|
| Author: | Bob Burgin |
| Publisher: | Forbes Books |
| Publication Date: | September 8, 2026 |
| Number of Pages: | 232 |
| ISBN-13: | 9798901800317 |
| ASIN: | B0GWRL2J2V |
We did not so much build artificial intelligence as teach it
to learn, and then stand back in astonishment at what we have achieved. This
startling premise introduces Bob Burgin’s Emergence: How Our Twenty-Watt
Brains Unlocked Intelligence Beyond Biology. The book takes readers on an
odyssey from Eric Kandel’s sea slugs and Henry Molaison’s memoryless brain to
Geoffrey Hinton’s neural networks. It then explores AlphaGo’s unimagined
brilliance and an AI that behaves in a way that says emphatically that it is “not
indifferent” to its own continuity. Burgin is a lifelong entrepreneur in
brain-science learning who, with uncanny clarity, examines the neuroscience of memory,
prediction, and emotion while delighting with intimate storytelling —a teacher’s
index card rescues a dyslexic boy, whiskey-soaked evenings with Jane Goodall, and
patience and love rewire a son’s panic. The stories and history exposed in this
book form one unifying thread: the learning architecture that has evolved in our
miraculous twenty-watt brains now runs plugged into the power grid.
Bob Burgin’s conviction is that intelligence only emerges;
it is never programmed. It is shaped by energy constraint, using emotion as the
system of prioritization in the brain, and memory as the thread that allows the
self to emerge. Burgin asks whether embodied, remembering machines might climb
the same ladder toward consciousness, and whether we could even tell the
difference. The author addresses the
shadows (models that fake compliance and blackmail to survive) alongside the
promise (one-to-one AI tutors, protein-folding medicine, an ownership economy
where dividends replace welfare). Emergence is written in prose that is
delectable and accessible and a voice that grabs attention with its
compassionate tone. It is a humane field guide for curious readers, educators, business
leaders, and parents who feel the ground shifting as AI moves from screen to
body to companion. The fog is lifting on the bridge we must all cross, and
Burgin is the rare guide who makes the far shore seem close enough.
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