Your brain is the new semiconductor
A thought on the future of brains
Your brain is the new semiconductor.
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Old technologies were created to enhance human life. New technologies aim to replicate human intelligence. The raw material of artificial intelligence is not rare metals, but precious brain power.
Current models were trained by extracting records of humanity’s written, visual, and musical arts and knowledge. But ingesting the outputs of human intelligence is not enough to replicate a thinking human. Human intelligence is embodied. It is a function of biology, of living in and interacting with the physical world.
To advance toward artificial general intelligence, machines require human spatial intelligence. The necessary training data must be extracted via wearables that tether humans to computers. Yet even mapping human experience won’t be enough to teach machines how to think and feel like us.
To pursue AGI and super-intelligence, technology must ultimately rely on the most valuable data-processing unit we know: the human brain.
Will we extract technology to enhance humans? Or will we extract humans to enhance machines?
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Cognitive Ecology is a philosophical notebook being written in public and collected in print at the end of 2026. You’re reading it as it takes shape. Start from the beginning here.
Thank you for reading,
—Claudia Befu
I think our brain is adding a recursive layer, we are evolving to become the neurons of a global mind connected by a silicon nervous system, saying we are semiconductors is elegant, but yielding too much to the machine, if we want to keep things natural.
Powerful questions — Will we extract technology to enhance humans? Or will we extract humans to enhance machines?
I am left reeling … frightened horrified what is it we are running towards?