Reading · Summer 2026 Reading from MIT
Shared Wisdom: Cultural Evolution in the Age of AI
By Alex "Sandy" Pentland, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and professor of information technology in the MIT Media Lab
MIT Press · 2025
How can we build a flourishing society by using human nature to design technology rather than letting technology shape society? Pentland explores how cultural inventions, from civilizations to the Enlightenment, accelerated innovation and collective wisdom. He argues that understanding these key factors in cultural evolution is essential for solving global challenges like climate change and pandemics, and shows how AI and digital media can aid rather than replace human deliberation.
From Summer 2026 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News).
More in Technology & society
- Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution · Dwaipayan Banerjee, 2026
- Auditing AI · Karrie G. Karahalios, 2026
- Shape Computation: Fifty Years, 1972-2022 · Sotirios Kotsopoulos SM '00, 2025
- The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft · Erik Lin-Greenberg, 2025
- The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence · Benjamin Mangrum, 2025
- Rubrique Technologie / Tech Section · Nick Montfort, 2026
- Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity · Elisabeth B. Reynolds, 2026
More from MIT Press
- Syntax: A Cognitive Approach · Edward A. F. Gibson, 2025
- Birds Up Close: An Engineer Explores Their Hidden Wonders · Lorna J. Gibson, 2026
- Carbon Removal · Howard J. Herzog, 2025
- The Handbook of Social Protection: Evidence and New Directions for Low- and Middle-Income Countries · Benjamin A. Olken, 2026
- Auditing AI · Karrie G. Karahalios, 2026
- Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity · Elisabeth B. Reynolds, 2026
- The Art of Monetary Policy: Lessons from Sun Tzu for Central Banks · Kristin J. Forbes, 2026
- Launching from the Lab: Building a Deep-Tech Startup · Lita Nelsen, 2026
- Bayesian Entrepreneurship · Erin L. Scott, 2026