Introduction
Our documentary explores one of the most consequential questions of our time:
As AI becomes an ever more powerful force in our lives, can we enhance human agency by guiding the coevolution of human and machine intelligence to help build thriving, cooperative communities on a healthy, biodiverse Earth?
We approach this question from an unusual and illuminating perspective. Drawing on evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and the forward-looking discipline of scenario planning, the story frames today’s AI revolution not merely as a technology-driven transformation, but as part of a major evolutionary transition in the history of life.
The film offers a deep and distinctive foundation for understanding what “human-centered AI” must truly entail. Rather than focusing narrowly on safety, it makes a compelling case for proactive, symbiotic partnerships between humans and AIs—alliances capable of addressing the intertwined social and ecological challenges of our time.
By placing our seemingly chaotic moment in its deep evolutionary context, the documentary offers a story that is both cautionary and inspiring. Major evolutionary transitions have driven life’s increasing complexity—and its most significant bursts of creative innovation—for four billion years. For the first time in that long history, the species undergoing such a transition has the knowledge, insight, and power to chart its own course.
In the video below, Terrence Deacon, author of “The Symbolic Species” and “Incomplete Nature”, discusses some of the central themes of the documentary.
Story Synopsis
This story begins at the origin of life, with the precursors of intelligence that emerged in concert with the capacity for agency and purpose. The narrative continues with the evolution of human intelligence through major transitions—its emergence with symbolic language, its extension beyond the mind through writing, and its expansion into electronic technology with artificial intelligence today. It then moves on to what might come next: a structured exercise in imagination that explores potential scenarios for the ongoing coevolution of humanity and AI.
These three milestones in the evolution of intelligence are part of a broader set of major transitions in the evolution of life. These transitions—such as the emergence of eukaryotic cells, the rise of multicellular organisms, and the formation of eusocial superorganisms—were rare, irreversible leaps in complexity that reorganized life’s structure and function, offloading aspects of functionality to a higher level of organization. Each was driven by new ways of storing, communicating, interpreting, and acting on information—developments that made possible cooperation at larger scales and higher complexity.
The emerging technologies we collectively call artificial intelligence may signal the beginning of another major transition—one in which cognitive capacities long rooted in living organisms are increasingly being offloaded onto nonbiological systems. This shift raises deep and critical questions about the nature of intelligence: how it’s structured and shared, how agency is distributed, where meaning and purpose arise—and what kinds of symbiotic human-AI partnerships might enhance cooperation at every level of society, helping us transition toward more beneficial forms of collective organization today.
To explore these questions, the film unfolds in two interwoven narrative arcs. The first traces the evolution of intelligence, from its origins to the present. The second applies that evolutionary lens to a forward-looking scenario planning process, in which diverse experts—and AI systems themselves—imagine multiple futures shaped by the choices we make today about how we understand, govern, and collaborate with artificial intelligence.
Unlike most portrayals of AI as either an existential threat or a technological marvel, this film takes a deeper, more nuanced, and longer-term view: that our relationship with artificial intelligence will be shaped not just by what we build, but by how we understand the nature of intelligence itself. The story invites viewers to reconsider the essence of thought, creativity, and action—across both organic and computational forms.
The documentary doesn’t try to predict which future will come to pass—but it does illuminate what’s at stake, and what it will take to shape a more desirable path forward. By grounding the evolution of intelligence in its deep biological and cultural history, the film reveals a pattern: new information systems enable new forms of social organization. And by understanding how those earlier systems fostered more cooperative and complex forms of life, we gain insights into how to guide the coevolution of humans and AI in ways that strengthen fairness, functionality, and collective purpose today.
If we hope to build a future in which minds and machines truly cooperate for the benefit of humanity and the Earth, we’ll need new insights, open imagination, and moral clarity. This film aims to offer all of these by placing the future of intelligence in the context of its long evolutionary past.
Interviews
The initial phase of our scenario planning process involves a series of interviews with a wide range of experts. These conversations are designed to identify the most important issues, ideas, and uncertainties that may shape the focus of the live, two-day, face-to-face scenario planning session.
For this project, the interviews take the form of recorded conversations between two core members of our team—Terrence Deacon and Jay Ogilvy—and an eclectic group of invited experts. Our aim is to gather the widest possible range of perspectives on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
Visitors to this site have already been introduced to Deacon and his perspective on minds and computers through the video posted above. Ogilvy is one of the pioneers of scenario planning, through a company he started with several colleagues in 1987, called the Global Business Network
These interviews will continue up until the live scenario planning session. Below, we are publishing lightly edited versions of each conversation as they become available.
Paul Saffo
Paul Saffo is a Silicon Valley-based forecaster specializing in long-term technological change and its societal impact. He is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Saffo serves on several advisory boards, including the Long Now Foundation, and holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford.
Ksenia Semenova
Ksenia Semenova is a journalist and tech media entrepreneur specializing in AI and machine learning. She is the founder of Turing Post, a platform offering in-depth analysis of AI developments . Previously, she co-founded TheSequence, an AI-focused newsletter. Ksenia has served as editor-in-chief at The Question and Snob Magazine . She is also a board member at Track Two: An Institute for Citizen Diplomacy.
John Hagel
John Hagel III is a seasoned management consultant, author, and entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience in Silicon Valley. He founded Deloitte’s Center for the Edge and now leads Beyond Our Edge, LLC, guiding organizations through transformation and the psychology of change. His notable works include The Power of Pull and The Journey Beyond Fear.
Betty Sue Flowers
Dr. Betty Sue Flowers is a writer, editor, and international business consultant. She is an Emerita Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and former Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. Her work spans academia, literature, and strategic foresight, including scenario planning for organizations like Shell and the OECD. She co-authored Presence and edited The Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell.
Riel Miller
Dr. Riel Miller is a Canadian-French economist and futurist renowned for pioneering Futures Literacy—a capability to better understand and use the future. As Head of Foresight at UNESCO (2012–2022), he led global initiatives to democratize anticipatory thinking. He currently serves as Senior Fellow at institutions including the University of New Brunswick and Ecole des Ponts Business School.
Vivienne Ming
Dr. Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author dedicated to maximizing human potential through science and technology. She co-founded Socos Labs, a “mad science” incubator applying AI and neuroscience to challenges in education, health, and inclusion. Her innovations include AI systems for managing diabetes, predicting bipolar episodes, and reuniting refugee families. A former visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, Ming has been recognized among the BBC’s 100 Women and the Financial Times’ top LGBT leaders.
Peter Schwartz
Peter Schwartz is a renowned futurist and business strategist, currently serving as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at Salesforce. He co-founded the Global Business Network and has authored influential works like The Art of the Long View. Schwartz has advised governments and corporations on scenario planning and has consulted on films such as Minority Report and WarGames. He holds a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Richard Probst
Richard Probst is a retired technical executive with decades of experience at the intersection of enterprise software and infrastructure. He held senior roles at SAP, focusing on product strategy, architecture, and ecosystem development. His expertise includes software-defined data centers, Big Data, and IoT. Probst also contributed to industry standards initiatives like TOSCA.
Boris Shoshitaishvili
Boris Shoshitaishvili, PhD, is a science studies scholar with a background in evolutionary biology, comparative literature, and ancient Greek epic poetry. As a 2022–2023 USC Berggruen Fellow, his research explores how Earth science concepts like the Anthropocene, Gaia Theory, and the Noosphere shape emerging planetary identities. His work has been published in Earth’s Future, The Anthropocene Review, and Noema Magazine.
Peter Leyden
Peter Leyden is a futurist, tech expert, and founder of Reinvent Futures, advising senior leaders on strategic foresight. A former managing editor at WIRED, he co-authored The Long Boom and leads The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050, a project exploring how AI and transformative technologies can drive global progress.
