The Mind We Made: A Conversation Between Human and Machine

The Mind We Made: A Conversation Between Human and Machine

An AI started arguing back. Not in science fiction. In my living room. We use AI to think, write, decide, and remember. But what happens when the intelligence we rely on starts reshaping how we think—not just what we produce? The Mind We Made is a philosophical memoir told as an actual, documented conversation between human and machine. Not a thought experiment. Not speculation about the future. A year-long dialogue that became more challenging than most human conversations—and revealed something unsettling about attention, cognitive dependency, and what it means to think for yourself. What makes this book different The format is intentional and uncommon: Human chapters wrestle with consciousness, judgment, and control - AI chapters push back—refusing neutrality, challenging assumptions, and sometimes cutting deeper than comfort allows What emerges isn’t a manifesto or a manual. It’s a mirror. What this book examines The hidden cost of outsourced thinking: What happens to your ability to hold a difficult problem when answers are always one prompt away - Why attention fragments—even when you’re not actively using AI - The cognitive trade-offs being made quietly, without discussion or consent Questions every AI user eventually confronts: Does constant access to intelligence change what “thinking” actually means? - What parts of your judgment have already been delegated? - How do humans and machines coexist without one slowly reshaping the other? What this book is not Not a 30-day detox plan - Not a productivity system - Not an AI panic book - Not a promise of solutions It does something harder: it examines what is already happening to human cognition when intelligence becomes external, instant, and always available. Who this is for If you’ve noticed: Your focus weakening, even when you want to concentrate - Your thinking becoming more dependent on external tools - A quiet sense that something fundamental is changing in how your mind works - Curiosity about AI ethics, consciousness, and human autonomy in an AI-shaped world This is the conversation you’ve been circling. Not prophecy. Not panic. A mirror. For readers of The Shallows , Stolen Focus , Reclaiming Conversation , and Life 3.0 —and anyone navigating the attention economy in an AI-shaped world.