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Future Minds: The Rise of Intelligence from the Big Bang to the End of the Universe
For Readers of Michio Kaku and Stephen Hawking, an Epic Journey through the Intelligent Universe
With the ongoing advancement of AI and other technologies, our world is becoming increasingly intelligent. From chatbots to innovations in brain-computer interfaces to the possibility of superintelligences later this century, our reality is being transformed before our eyes. This is commonly seen as the natural result of progress, but what if there's more to it than that? What if intelligence is an inevitability, an underlying property of the universe?
In Future Minds, Richard Yonck challenges our assumptions about intelligence--what it is, how it came to exist, its place in the development of life on Earth and possibly throughout the cosmos. Taking a Big History perspective--over the 14 billion years from the Big Bang to the present and beyond--he draws on recent developments in physics and complexity theory to explore the questions: Why do pockets of increased complexity develop, giving rise to life, intelligence, and civilization? How will it grow and change throughout this century, transforming both technology and humanity? As we expand outward from our planet, will we discover other forms of intelligence, or will we conclude we are destined to go it alone? Drawing on conversations with scientists and researchers at the forefront of AI, physics, cognitive neuroscience, complexity and other fields, Future Minds seeks to understand where all of this has come from and more importantly, where it is headed.
With the ongoing advancement of AI and other technologies, our world is becoming increasingly intelligent. From chatbots to innovations in brain-computer interfaces to the possibility of superintelligences later this century, our reality is being transformed before our eyes. This is commonly seen as the natural result of progress, but what if there's more to it than that? What if intelligence is an inevitability, an underlying property of the universe?
In Future Minds, Richard Yonck challenges our assumptions about intelligence--what it is, how it came to exist, its place in the development of life on Earth and possibly throughout the cosmos. Taking a Big History perspective--over the 14 billion years from the Big Bang to the present and beyond--he draws on recent developments in physics and complexity theory to explore the questions: Why do pockets of increased complexity develop, giving rise to life, intelligence, and civilization? How will it grow and change throughout this century, transforming both technology and humanity? As we expand outward from our planet, will we discover other forms of intelligence, or will we conclude we are destined to go it alone? Drawing on conversations with scientists and researchers at the forefront of AI, physics, cognitive neuroscience, complexity and other fields, Future Minds seeks to understand where all of this has come from and more importantly, where it is headed.
440 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 17, 2020
50 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Richard Yonck
3 books27 followersRichard Yonck began reading science fiction from his earliest school days. Always curious about the future and worlds beyond our own planet, he was fascinated by computers and electronics as well. As a boy, he could often be found in the garage taking apart motors, radios and televisions, then reassembling them in order to understand how they worked. Combined with his love of writing, media, and computing, this eventually put him on the path as an international keynote speaker, global futurist and best-selling author. In these roles, he takes audiences on journeys into the future to explore the potential impacts of emerging trends and technologies on business, industry and society.
Richard’s book, Future Minds explores the nature and future of human and artificial intelligence. His previous book, Heart of the Machine, looks at the future of those technologies that allow computers and robots to read, interpret, and influence human emotions. Now in its second edition, it’s been translated into multiple languages.
Now, his passion for science and science fiction has brought him full circle. Mindstock is Richard’s debut science fiction thriller, though it will be far from his last. He loves writing fiction that explores not only what may happen, but what must never happen. Join him on this sci-fi thriller journey through his books, author talks, newsletters and social media channels.
Raised in Seattle, Richard is married to his wife, Alexandra Steele, and together they make their home in Buenos Aires, Prague, Seattle and who knows where beyond that.
Richard’s book, Future Minds explores the nature and future of human and artificial intelligence. His previous book, Heart of the Machine, looks at the future of those technologies that allow computers and robots to read, interpret, and influence human emotions. Now in its second edition, it’s been translated into multiple languages.
Now, his passion for science and science fiction has brought him full circle. Mindstock is Richard’s debut science fiction thriller, though it will be far from his last. He loves writing fiction that explores not only what may happen, but what must never happen. Join him on this sci-fi thriller journey through his books, author talks, newsletters and social media channels.
Raised in Seattle, Richard is married to his wife, Alexandra Steele, and together they make their home in Buenos Aires, Prague, Seattle and who knows where beyond that.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 11, 2020
Intelligence in the universe
Human beings may not be Earth’s most intelligent beings for much longer. In fact, some predict that artificial intelligence (AI) could advance to human-level intelligence. The late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking famously postulated that if AI itself begins designing better AI than human programmers, the result could be "machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails." Artificial General intelligence (AGI) is humanity's biggest existential threat, and there is an effort to create machines that can experience consciousness and grasps philosophical issues beneath the algorithms. The machine consciousness could become the byproduct of information processing and intelligence.
The author looks at the future from the origin of the universe and draws on recent developments in bio-thermodynamics and the evolution of complexity in living cells. How structured and highly ordered cellular systems evolve that appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But they don’t, because they are not closed systems. But there is a connection between intelligence and entropy maximization. There are entropic forces that can cause two defining behaviors of the human cognitive niche; tool use, and social cooperation that leads to certain emergent properties. Intelligence is not necessarily a cognitive-based property. It is perhaps a manifestation of a much larger universal process, one that is initially dependent on probability, but with emergent properties, it is capable of self-directed volition over time. Emergent intelligence is driven by competition, thermodynamics, and entropy as a means of promoting future freedom of action.
A general thermodynamic model of adaptive behavior in nonequilibrium process in open systems, the cognitive-adaptive organisms have an internal mental model of the environment they seek to adapt to. But from a probability-based perspective, high-entropy states should create the best conditions for evolution either for living species or machine intelligence. In other words, the more unrestricted the environment, the more options that can be explored. This concept of causal entropic forcing is critical to the origin of life, and machine intelligence.
The author expresses his hope that future intelligence may find the purpose of this universe, this could be a wishful thinking that may never find an answer. The laws of physics are immutable, and the cosmos is limited by 4-dimesional spacetime. The natural and artificial intelligence include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, and perception. In advanced animal species, and robotics, additional requirements include the ability to move, manipulate objects and natural language processing is required. The underlying principles, besides the operation of the laws of physics and (chemistry in biological systems), is to achieve their goal through statistical mechanics, probability, information engineering, entropy, and economics. The author offers reasonable discussion in this book.
Human beings may not be Earth’s most intelligent beings for much longer. In fact, some predict that artificial intelligence (AI) could advance to human-level intelligence. The late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking famously postulated that if AI itself begins designing better AI than human programmers, the result could be "machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails." Artificial General intelligence (AGI) is humanity's biggest existential threat, and there is an effort to create machines that can experience consciousness and grasps philosophical issues beneath the algorithms. The machine consciousness could become the byproduct of information processing and intelligence.
The author looks at the future from the origin of the universe and draws on recent developments in bio-thermodynamics and the evolution of complexity in living cells. How structured and highly ordered cellular systems evolve that appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But they don’t, because they are not closed systems. But there is a connection between intelligence and entropy maximization. There are entropic forces that can cause two defining behaviors of the human cognitive niche; tool use, and social cooperation that leads to certain emergent properties. Intelligence is not necessarily a cognitive-based property. It is perhaps a manifestation of a much larger universal process, one that is initially dependent on probability, but with emergent properties, it is capable of self-directed volition over time. Emergent intelligence is driven by competition, thermodynamics, and entropy as a means of promoting future freedom of action.
A general thermodynamic model of adaptive behavior in nonequilibrium process in open systems, the cognitive-adaptive organisms have an internal mental model of the environment they seek to adapt to. But from a probability-based perspective, high-entropy states should create the best conditions for evolution either for living species or machine intelligence. In other words, the more unrestricted the environment, the more options that can be explored. This concept of causal entropic forcing is critical to the origin of life, and machine intelligence.
The author expresses his hope that future intelligence may find the purpose of this universe, this could be a wishful thinking that may never find an answer. The laws of physics are immutable, and the cosmos is limited by 4-dimesional spacetime. The natural and artificial intelligence include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, and perception. In advanced animal species, and robotics, additional requirements include the ability to move, manipulate objects and natural language processing is required. The underlying principles, besides the operation of the laws of physics and (chemistry in biological systems), is to achieve their goal through statistical mechanics, probability, information engineering, entropy, and economics. The author offers reasonable discussion in this book.
June 29, 2020
Future Minds is a book about “big questions”. No, not what shall we get on our pizza. Richard Yonck is asking and addressing questions such as; where did life some from, why are we here, what is a mind, how soon will computers become self-aware, are there others intelligences in the universe, and is a silicon life-form the next step in evolution on Earth.
In three hundred eighty-nine pages (not including the index), Yonck starts off with the question of how did life emerge on earth and finishes pondering the heat death of the universe. That is an incredible amount of questions, thoughts, and answers in one book.
In order to discuss these questions, the reader has to be introduced to a fair amount of science. Yonck provides a mini-summary/crash course about such subjects as; the big bang, amino acids, the theory of relativity, quantum computing, nanobots, DNA manipulation, and dyson spheres. While these are all interesting topics but they are not the focus of the book.
Yonck wants you to imagine possible futures so that you can consider the technical and moral questions they contain. For example, if there is a good possibility that a super AI computer can be built that will look at us as we do ants (and possibly step on us), should we be developing one? Another one is, if we can create and implant computer interfaces into our brains that will give us access to knowledge, learning, and communication millions of times greater than our cell phones should we pursue this avenue when there are people out there just waiting to hack into our brains? These questions are just the tip of the philosophical, scientific, and moral iceberg that Yonck has created with Future Minds.
This book is not a “page turner”. It needs to be read slowly so that you can not only understand the scientific concepts presented but in order to give yourself time to ponder their implications. For me, reading this book made my head hurt. Not that this is a bad thing as it means that my thinking is being stretched into uncharted territory. In the new space created there are opportunities for ideas, questions, and future pondering that were not there before reading Future Minds.
I like to describe science as a system where two or more important questions are created where there was only one before. In this way, we learn more about our past and present and can make plans for the future. In his book, Yonck presents enough questions to last me for years to come and each of those questions can spin off at least two more. In other wards, Yonck’s book will fill your head with new information and then stretch your thinking as to what to do with it. Not an easy read but definitely more than worth the effort.
In three hundred eighty-nine pages (not including the index), Yonck starts off with the question of how did life emerge on earth and finishes pondering the heat death of the universe. That is an incredible amount of questions, thoughts, and answers in one book.
In order to discuss these questions, the reader has to be introduced to a fair amount of science. Yonck provides a mini-summary/crash course about such subjects as; the big bang, amino acids, the theory of relativity, quantum computing, nanobots, DNA manipulation, and dyson spheres. While these are all interesting topics but they are not the focus of the book.
Yonck wants you to imagine possible futures so that you can consider the technical and moral questions they contain. For example, if there is a good possibility that a super AI computer can be built that will look at us as we do ants (and possibly step on us), should we be developing one? Another one is, if we can create and implant computer interfaces into our brains that will give us access to knowledge, learning, and communication millions of times greater than our cell phones should we pursue this avenue when there are people out there just waiting to hack into our brains? These questions are just the tip of the philosophical, scientific, and moral iceberg that Yonck has created with Future Minds.
This book is not a “page turner”. It needs to be read slowly so that you can not only understand the scientific concepts presented but in order to give yourself time to ponder their implications. For me, reading this book made my head hurt. Not that this is a bad thing as it means that my thinking is being stretched into uncharted territory. In the new space created there are opportunities for ideas, questions, and future pondering that were not there before reading Future Minds.
I like to describe science as a system where two or more important questions are created where there was only one before. In this way, we learn more about our past and present and can make plans for the future. In his book, Yonck presents enough questions to last me for years to come and each of those questions can spin off at least two more. In other wards, Yonck’s book will fill your head with new information and then stretch your thinking as to what to do with it. Not an easy read but definitely more than worth the effort.
April 19, 2021
This is a religious text. The author is laying out his hopes for a transhumanist redemption, and has crafted a metaphysics around it that recasts the universe as a machine for manufacturing intelligences. Or, as he puts it, maximizers of future freedom of action.
Yonck has organized the book as a Big History around this theme, beginning in the early chapters at the Big Bang and quickly accelerating to our present day and on to the end of time, with stilted SF beings huddled around the fires of supermassive black holes dispensing Silicon Valley pablum as the last wisps of energy peter out. Sounds kinda cool, right? Ambitious at least.
Except the product here is a philosophically, politically, and economically naïve text. Yonck barely mentions the massive upheavals, ethical dilemmas, and questionable assumptions of transhumanist soteriology in passing, and even when he does so, there's little sense he's really grappled with them. Instead, what you get here is breathless and gormless SF capsule stories, oodles of acronyms piling up like a runaway spaghetti factory, and occasional interesting accounts of current computer science or neuroscience reduced to its barest facts.
As far as Yonck is concerned, the birth of AI superintelligences is as inevitable as the spinning of the Fates, so we might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. One does not question the divine oracle; one merely learns to fit one's life around it. It's a cute vision and if it helps him feel better about the precarity of humanity, I guess good for him. But this is pretty thin gruel for anyone interested in a complex and difficult topic.
I will grant that his early chapters on the early days of the universe were accessible and engaging in a way that many pop-science books fail to achieve. But it's clumsily inserted into the overarching text, and the bulk of the book drops precipitously in quality. It's fine but you can do better.
Yonck has organized the book as a Big History around this theme, beginning in the early chapters at the Big Bang and quickly accelerating to our present day and on to the end of time, with stilted SF beings huddled around the fires of supermassive black holes dispensing Silicon Valley pablum as the last wisps of energy peter out. Sounds kinda cool, right? Ambitious at least.
Except the product here is a philosophically, politically, and economically naïve text. Yonck barely mentions the massive upheavals, ethical dilemmas, and questionable assumptions of transhumanist soteriology in passing, and even when he does so, there's little sense he's really grappled with them. Instead, what you get here is breathless and gormless SF capsule stories, oodles of acronyms piling up like a runaway spaghetti factory, and occasional interesting accounts of current computer science or neuroscience reduced to its barest facts.
As far as Yonck is concerned, the birth of AI superintelligences is as inevitable as the spinning of the Fates, so we might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. One does not question the divine oracle; one merely learns to fit one's life around it. It's a cute vision and if it helps him feel better about the precarity of humanity, I guess good for him. But this is pretty thin gruel for anyone interested in a complex and difficult topic.
I will grant that his early chapters on the early days of the universe were accessible and engaging in a way that many pop-science books fail to achieve. But it's clumsily inserted into the overarching text, and the bulk of the book drops precipitously in quality. It's fine but you can do better.
June 1, 2020
FUTURE MINDS reads like a season of Carl Sagan's COSMOS. Yonck deftly explores the history and future of one of the most difficult subjects we know: Intelligence. His research and facts are impeccable, and are presented in a way that will satisfy both the most devoted infovores or casual reader - and everyone in-between. He pulls this off by taking us on a journey starting from the beginning of the universe and runs it all the way to the end. The narrative vignettes along the way serve to give the reader an emotional tie to the factual discussions in each chapter. As a professional futurist, I admire both the deeply researched content and the engaging presentation. This is a great book for anyone curious about intelligence, the future, or both.
Frankly, Netflix or some other streaming service should turn this book into a Cosmos-like series. It is tailor made for being adapted to video.
Tim Morgan
North Texas Foresight Institute
Frankly, Netflix or some other streaming service should turn this book into a Cosmos-like series. It is tailor made for being adapted to video.
Tim Morgan
North Texas Foresight Institute
May 19, 2022
If you love science then this book is for you. I love reading about the beginning of man, evolution and the future of man. This book provides a fascinating look into the origins of man and technology. While I must admit that a lot of the things the author recounts are mere conjectures and speculations which have not being proven, it still is a fascinating introduction. The subject which the author deals with keeps you on the edge of your seat. To imagine that one day humans will evolve into Homo Technologicus as the book aptly names is interesting. While many aspects of the future as extrapolated by the author sounds a bit far fetched maybe it might be possible considering what we have been able to do in the last centuries but it's still speculative. Though the author tries to paint a future where almost anything is possible. Some of the things mentioned in the book lie in the realm of scientific fantasy. Maybe I'm being too hasty to pronounce judgement here. But it will be fascinating to have humanity ascend that peak of technology.
January 26, 2020
.If some aliens visited earth and wanted to carry details of what humans have achieved technologically, who were the scientists and what sapiens are planning in coming century; this is the book which they should takeaway.
It is full ( bubbling) with information.
It tells in a highly readable prose,
History of major technological developments related to biology, space, physics, computers, AI and space travel.
There is a lot of food for science book readers.
Developments latest to year 2018 are covered.
I learnt so much from history'of scientific discovery.
Although grossly theoretical it evaluates how various AI capabilities are going to develop and what we should expect from it.
And we are not still ready for it.
A very nice book for peeking into very important scientific discoveries in recent times.
Thanks edelweiss plus and publisher for review copy.
It is full ( bubbling) with information.
It tells in a highly readable prose,
History of major technological developments related to biology, space, physics, computers, AI and space travel.
There is a lot of food for science book readers.
Developments latest to year 2018 are covered.
I learnt so much from history'of scientific discovery.
Although grossly theoretical it evaluates how various AI capabilities are going to develop and what we should expect from it.
And we are not still ready for it.
A very nice book for peeking into very important scientific discoveries in recent times.
Thanks edelweiss plus and publisher for review copy.
July 18, 2020
The book inspects the concept of intelligence across borders of space and time to help readers gain a better understanding of the significance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the world ahead. The book is different from similar works published on AI mainly because of the universal perspective it offers to its readers. It highlights the evolutionary nature of intelligence in human and the new world that can be created in light of an intelligence-based global awareness regarding the co-evolution of human and technology.
August 6, 2020
Well written and assessible explications of cosmology and intelligence, from beginning to end. Well worth the effort.
June 11, 2020
It was great until the VERY end where it talked about some VERY esoteric futuristic theories which made Kaku look like Stephen Hawking. Other than that, I enjoyed it a bunch!
3.3/5
3.3/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2020
Like Candy for my brain! Loved it.
December 27, 2020
Interesting read, cool new perspective on the meaning of life, to help accelerate entropy :)
September 12, 2025
Future Minds is one of those rare books that makes you stop and truly reconsider humanity’s place in the universe. Richard Yonck takes readers on a sweeping journey, not just through the history of intelligence on Earth, but across cosmic time, from the Big Bang to the possibilities of our far future.
What I appreciated most was how the book blends hard science with big-picture philosophy. It doesn’t just talk about AI or brain-computer interfaces; it asks deeper questions: What if intelligence itself is a fundamental property of the universe? That’s a perspective that lingers long after reading.
The writing is accessible without oversimplifying, and Yonck has a talent for weaving together physics, complexity theory, and human culture in a way that feels both educational and inspiring. I especially enjoyed how he balanced scientific insights with open-ended wonder about where intelligence, human, artificial, or otherwise, might lead us next.
If you’re fascinated by thinkers like Michio Kaku or Stephen Hawking, or if you’ve ever wondered about the bigger story of intelligence in the cosmos, this book is an absolute must-read. It’s not just about technology; it’s about what it means to be part of an intelligent universe.
What I appreciated most was how the book blends hard science with big-picture philosophy. It doesn’t just talk about AI or brain-computer interfaces; it asks deeper questions: What if intelligence itself is a fundamental property of the universe? That’s a perspective that lingers long after reading.
The writing is accessible without oversimplifying, and Yonck has a talent for weaving together physics, complexity theory, and human culture in a way that feels both educational and inspiring. I especially enjoyed how he balanced scientific insights with open-ended wonder about where intelligence, human, artificial, or otherwise, might lead us next.
If you’re fascinated by thinkers like Michio Kaku or Stephen Hawking, or if you’ve ever wondered about the bigger story of intelligence in the cosmos, this book is an absolute must-read. It’s not just about technology; it’s about what it means to be part of an intelligent universe.
July 10, 2023
The first and last seconds were relatively interesting, but it was the middle section of this book, focused on the 21st century, that really grabbed my attention. A lot of different fields of research and development into AI than what I was aware of.
October 26, 2023
4.5 stars
An intelligent book on intelligence (not psychology). A bit on the dry side, perhaps.
An intelligent book on intelligence (not psychology). A bit on the dry side, perhaps.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews