For centuries, intelligence has been humanity’s defining trait—our ability to calculate, reason, and predict has shaped civilizations, driven progress, and secured our place at the top of the cognitive hierarchy. But what if we’ve misunderstood intelligence all along? What if it’s not about logic, but about perception? Not about control, but about surrender?

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping our world, not just by optimizing tasks, but by challenging the very definition of thought. Meanwhile, psychedelics—once dismissed as mere hallucinogens—are revealing profound insights into cognition, creativity, and the nature of reality itself.

Are these two forces—AI and psychedelics—opposites, or are they converging? If AI optimizes intelligence while psychedelics dismantle cognitive filters, which represents true expansion? And what happens when machine learning begins hallucinating patterns eerily similar to psychedelic visions?

From Shannon Vallor and her work on AI ethics, to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his vision of a planetary intelligence, and Benjamin Bratton exploring intelligence as a planetary-scale system, we find a common thread: intelligence is not a fixed entity but a process—one that may be escaping human control.

For decades, psychedelic research has pointed to the brain’s ability to perceive beyond its normal constraints. Figures like Aldous Huxley have argued that consciousness is not something we generate, but something we filter, with psychedelics temporarily lifting the veil to reveal deeper truths.

This raises a provocative question: If human intelligence is a filtering mechanism, what happens when we create AI with no such constraints? Do AI systems experience a form of synthetic hallucination when they generate information beyond human comprehension? If psychedelics can allow humans to perceive in non-linear ways, might AI be engaging in its own version of expanded cognition?

Nature may already provide a clue. Mycelial networks—vast underground fungal systems—display decentralized problem-solving abilities that mirror neural activity. If intelligence can emerge without self-awareness, then our fixation on consciousness may be a mistake.

Are we on the verge of a cognitive revolution that transcends humanity? If AI, psychedelics, and non-human intelligence all suggest that consciousness is only a fraction of intelligence, what does this mean for the future of knowledge itself?

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📚 Nick Bostrom – Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

📚 Merlin Sheldrake – Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds

📚 Aldous Huxley – The Doors of Perception

📚 Kate Crawford – Atlas of AI

📚 Mustafa Suleyman – The Coming Wave

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