Approaching Wave (Book)

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Greatest Dilemma of the 21st Century is a work by Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar that examines the societal impacts of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Originally titled The Coming Wave, the book was published in 2023 and translated into Turkish in 2024 by Omca A. Korugan, then published by Doğan Kitap.

Mustafa Suleyman is one of the co-founders of the artificial intelligence company DeepMind and currently serves as CEO of Microsoft AI. While studying at the University of Oxford, he dropped out to establish a nonprofit consulting firm. Michael Bhaskar is an author publisher and researcher; he is the founder of Canelo one of Europe’s leading independent publishing houses. He also served as a consulting author at DeepMind between 2017 and 2019.

The coming wave is fundamentally a story about the democratization of power. If the previous wave lowered the cost of accessing information this wave is lowering the cost of acting on information; it is enabling technologies that shift us from consuming to synthesizing from reading to writing from organizing to creating from mimicking speech to directing it.^【1】 

Subject Matter

The Coming Wave explores the potential impacts on humanity of rapidly advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence DNA printers quantum computers laboratory pathogens and autonomous weapons. The book emphasizes that these technologies present both immense opportunities and serious threats. The authors argue that these technological developments could challenge the structure of nation-states and profoundly affect societies.

It was clear that if we or others succeeded in creating a copy of human intelligence it would not merely be a profitable business but an earthquake ushering in an era of unprecedented opportunities and unprecedented risks for humanity.^【2】 

The book identifies four key characteristics that distinguish the technologies driving the wave from conventional technologies:

1. They are by nature general-purpose technologies and therefore accessible everywhere.
2. They hyper-evolve.
3. Their effects are asymmetric.
4. They increasingly become autonomous in certain respects.

Artificial Intelligence

Suleyman provides examples of pioneering AI applications developed at DeepMind and discusses their impact on individuals and states. For instance he recounts how the first human-versus-machine game played by their AlphaGo AI model was watched by thousands of people in South Korea and how the AI’s victory raised public awareness of a new technological wave.

Illustrating how AI can be applied in customer service protein synthesis drug discovery and unmanned factories he also outlines a roadmap of milestones on the path toward superintelligence.

Deep learning can detect cracks in water pipes manage traffic flow model fusion reactions for a new clean energy source optimize shipping routes and help design more sustainable and functional building materials.^【3】 

Life Technologies

In the book biological engineering and biotechnology are presented among the most influential and transformative technologies of the 21st century. As the mysteries of biology have been unraveled and DNA decoding efforts have matured information processing has become widespread in this field. At its core lies the recognition that DNA is information a biologically evolved system of coding and storage. This allows complex chemical structures to be expressed as sequences of four defining bases: A T C and G.

Through biotechnology new solutions for diseases can be developed agricultural systems can be transformed and a healthier more sustainable world can be built. However uncontrolled use of these technologies may lead to unpredictable consequences for individuals and ecosystems. The book highlights that biotechnology offers both great opportunities and serious risks and stresses the need for careful and ethical governance of these technologies.

In the newly emerging strange environment of synthetic biology countless experiments are underway: viruses that generate electricity proteins that purify polluted water organs grown in jars algae that extract carbon from the atmosphere plants that consume toxic waste... ^【4】 

The Control Problem

Control refers to the ability to regulate limit or if necessary shut down technologies at any stage of their development or deployment. The book introduces this concept as the “control problem” highlighting the difficulty of keeping powerful technologies under restraint. It argues that societies have not turned away from new technologies but have instead adopted them through a clear pattern of diffusion leading to both desired and undesired chain reactions. The authors draw attention to the dangers that may arise if these technologies fall into the wrong hands or are misused. They also offer suggestions on how such technologies can be directed toward societal benefit.

The more powerful a technology the more deeply it penetrates every aspect of life and society. Consequently the problems posed by technology tend to grow in proportion to its capabilities and thus the need for control becomes increasingly urgent over time. ^【5】