Mind vs Machine
Ten cognitive faculties. Two contenders. One question: where does intelligence end and consciousness begin?
For three centuries we built machines that could not think, and called them dumb. For one century we built machines that could not feel, and called them cold. In this decade we built machines that argue back — and the old vocabulary cracks.
This atlas examines the ten faculties that, taken together, define a mind. Each is a chapter. Each is a wager. Each is a place where humans still hold a candle — or where the candle has already passed.
The map of difference.
A single chart, two silhouettes. Amber for the human, cyan for the machine of 2026. The shape between them is where the next century happens.
Scores are author estimates from current literature (2026). Hover for values. They will be wrong by 2030 — that is the point.
Ten doors. Open any one.
Each faculty is a 5-minute essay — bilingual, illustrated, with historical lineage and frontier research.
“The question of whether machines can think is about as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim.”
Rate today's AI.
Drag the dial. There is no correct answer — only positions, each with their own stakes.
Convincing in narrow rooms; cracks at the edges.