Aug 24, 2026 · 1 hr 9 min · 14 segments
Robert Wright has spent decades writing about human nature, evolution, and the forces that shape history. In his latest book, The God Test*,* he argues…
Robert WrightGuest
Coleman HughesHost
Uh, this is a book about artificial intelligence, what it's going to... how it's gonna change the, the landscape of our social lives, um, of, of everything really.
I try to explain in the book why the capabilities have advanced so far so fast, and why, once you understand that, you've got to expect them to keep advancing.
So I'm on, like, Team Earthquake, and I argue that, uh, we face, which is to say humankind faces, the kind of test a god would give, uh, for one thing, because I think we can only handle this, uh, technological challenge, navigate the revolution to a good end, uh, b- if we approach it as a global community with, uh, much less in the way of, uh, division and war.
And to do that, I think we're gonna need to undergr- undergo something like a moral upgrade.
I mean, individual human beings are gonna have to get better at, you know, understanding the perspective of adversaries and adversarial groups and so on, um, and work their differences out.
Uh, and you know, I, I guess that idea, God Test in that sense is kind of reinforced by my taking a somewhat cosmic perspective, because I do frame the AI revolution ultimately in the context of the entire, you know, 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth.
You know, what does this represent, uh, i- in that context? In other words, as not just a threshold in, in technological history, but the history of organic life.
God Test also refers to this idea that we may, and I'm kind of agnostic on this, I mean, I, I don't rule it out, uh, and I look at the idea closely in the book and, and unfortunately kind of find myself unable to dismiss it.
Uh, we may be building, uh, this, you know, global super intelligence that could wind up running the planet possibly to our great disadvantage.
Uh, i- if that's the case, and, you know, people who have this view refer to this as a god.
If, if that's the case, then, uh, we should think about how you build a good god, like one we can get along with, you know? [laughs] Um, and, uh, you know, then finally, I, I do, uh, as I've done before, fool around with the possibility that, uh, evolution and, and subsequent, you know, so-called cultural evolution, that is to say this, this process that human intelligence has launched that includes technological evolution, politics, religion, everything.
That, that, that, that whole sweep of evolution, uh, all the way from, you know, primordial ooze up to kind of the brink of, I would say, the global social organization of humankind, and even in a sense, the construction of a global brain.
I fool around with the possibility that that represents the unfolding of some larger purpose, possibly a divine purpose, possibly some other one.
But it has a kind of directionality to it that I think makes that speculation non-crazy.
And, and I should say that's compatible with a materialist view of the mechanics of the unfolding of, of these evolutionary processes.
Uh, this is a book about artificial intelligence, what it's going to... how it's gonna change the, the landscape of our social lives, um, of, of everything really.
I try to explain in the book why the capabilities have advanced so far so fast, and why, once you understand that, you've got to expect them to keep advancing.
So I'm on, like, Team Earthquake, and I argue that, uh, we face, which is to say humankind faces, the kind of test a god would give, uh, for one thing, because I think we can only handle this, uh, technological challenge, navigate the revolution to a good end, uh, b- if we approach it as a global community with, uh, much less in the way of, uh, division and war.
And to do that, I think we're gonna need to undergr- undergo something like a moral upgrade.
I mean, individual human beings are gonna have to get better at, you know, understanding the perspective of adversaries and adversarial groups and so on, um, and work their differences out.
Uh, and you know, I, I guess that idea, God Test in that sense is kind of reinforced by my taking a somewhat cosmic perspective, because I do frame the AI revolution ultimately in the context of the entire, you know, 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth.
You know, what does this represent, uh, i- in that context? In other words, as not just a threshold in, in technological history, but the history of organic life.
God Test also refers to this idea that we may, and I'm kind of agnostic on this, I mean, I, I don't rule it out, uh, and I look at the idea closely in the book and, and unfortunately kind of find myself unable to dismiss it.
Uh, we may be building, uh, this, you know, global super intelligence that could wind up running the planet possibly to our great disadvantage.
Uh, i- if that's the case, and, you know, people who have this view refer to this as a god.
If, if that's the case, then, uh, we should think about how you build a good god, like one we can get along with, you know? [laughs] Um, and, uh, you know, then finally, I, I do, uh, as I've done before, fool around with the possibility that, uh, evolution and, and subsequent, you know, so-called cultural evolution, that is to say this, this process that human intelligence has launched that includes technological evolution, politics, religion, everything.
That, that, that, that whole sweep of evolution, uh, all the way from, you know, primordial ooze up to kind of the brink of, I would say, the global social organization of humankind, and even in a sense, the construction of a global brain.
I fool around with the possibility that that represents the unfolding of some larger purpose, possibly a divine purpose, possibly some other one.
But it has a kind of directionality to it that I think makes that speculation non-crazy.
And, and I should say that's compatible with a materialist view of the mechanics of the unfolding of, of these evolutionary processes.
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