“Megan O'Giblin is a brilliant and humble philosopher, and her book is an explosive, thought-provoking, brutally personal ride that I wish I had never finished... This book is such an original synthesis of ideas and revelations. She represents what will soon be called the O'Giblin genre of essayism." (Heidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock)

An original exploration of what it might mean to be truly human in the age of artificial intelligence.

For most of human history, the world was a magical and enchanted place, controlled by forces beyond our understanding. With the development of science and Descartes' division into mind and world, materialism became our dominant paradigm, in the process raising the question of whether our own consciousness - that is, the soul - is an illusion. Now, as technology advances inexorably, artificial intelligences surpass our understanding and control, and digital metaphors proliferate for self-understanding, the fundamental questions of existence - identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life - urgently require rethinking.

Megan O 'Giblin tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual breadth, essayistic brilliance, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her personal experiences as a former religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and serves as the best guide to the territory we are all entering.

Megan O'Giblin - author of the essay collection Inner States, which won the Believer Book Award for non-fiction. She writes essays and articles for Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Wired, The New York Times and other publications.