Simply remembering that corporations were invented should alone empower us to reinvent them to our liking.

The most direct benefit of more neurons and connections in our brains is an increase in the size of the social networks we can form. Complicated brains make for more complex societies.

Only service to others gives us the opportunity to experience autonomy and belonging at the same time.

The more we see the human being as a technology to be enhanced, the greater the danger of applying this same market ethos to people, and extending our utility value at the expense of others. Life extension becomes the last-ditch attempt of the market to increase our available timeline as consumers—and consumers willing to spend anything for that

Researchers have found, for example, that the algorithms running social media platforms tend to show people pictures of their ex-lovers having fun. No, users don’t want to see such images. But, through trial and error, the algorithms have discovered that showing us pictures of our exes having fun increases our engagement. We are drawn to click on

Humans are defined not by our superior hunting ability so much as by our capacity to communicate, trust, and share.

The first step toward reversing our predicament is to recognize that being human is a team sport. We cannot be fully human alone.

Algorithms don’t engage with us humans directly. They engage with the data we leave in our wake to make assumptions about who we are and how we will behave. Then they push us to behave more consistently with what they have determined to be our statistically most probable selves. They want us to be true to our profiles.

We play life as a board game with winners and losers, where we “end up” in a certain career, marriage, and socioeconomic class.