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What if the only way out of the technological dilemma is to admit that there is no easy way out?
Chapter 13 begins with a quiet but important shift in tone. After mapping the risks of the coming wave — AI, synthetic biology, robotics, autonomy — the author turns to the practical question: what would containment actually look like? Not in slogans. Not in panel discussions. In reality .
And the first uncomfortable truth is this: regulation alone is not enough.
Whenever technology feels overwhelming, the reflex answer is “regulate it.” It sounds responsible. Mature. Sensible. We’ve regulated cars, planes, medicines — why not AI? But the chapter dismantles this comforting instinct. Regulation moves slowly. Technology evolves weekly. Politicians operate inside news cycles; researchers operate inside exponential curves. By the time legislation catches up, the landscape has already shifted .
The Ring doorbell example captures this dynamic perfectly. A seemingly simple product — a camera on your front door — quietly reshaped norms around privacy and surveillance before regulators even realized what had happened. Multiply that by AI models, synthetic biology tools, and autonomous systems, and the lag becomes existential .
The chapter introduces a powerful phrase: the price of scattered insights is failure. Today’s debates about algorithmic bias, drone warfare, bio-risk, or economic displacement are fragmented. Each silo treats its problem as distinct. But they are manifestations of the same underlying wave — asymmetry, hyper-evolution, omni-use, and autonomy. Without a unified goal, efforts remain ad hoc and reactive .
That unifying goal, the author argues, must be containment.
Containment is not a magic box that seals dangerous technology away. It is a system of guardrails — technical, cultural, regulatory — strong enough to prevent runaway catastrophe while allowing progress to continue . Think less “ban everything” and more “keep humanity in the driver’s seat.”
The dilemma, though, is brutal. Nations are locked in strategic competition. Every country wants to lead in AI and biotech — for pride, for security, for prosperity. Yet they also fear losing control over those same technologies. Advantage and safety pull in opposite directions . Slow down too much and you fall behind. Move too fast and you court disaster.
The EU’s AI Act is presented as one of the most ambitious attempts at containment so far — risk tiers, oversight for high-risk systems, prohibitions for unacceptable ones . Yet even this flagship effort reveals the limits of legislation. Critics say it overreaches. Others say it’s too weak. Some argue it chills innovation; others that it protects incumbents. This is what regulating a general-purpose technology looks like: messy, contested, incomplete.
And general-purpose technologies are precisely the problem. A nuclear weapon is specific. A computer is omni-use. The more uses a technology has, the ha
From Chapter 13 of the book: 'The Coming Wave' by Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar
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