The Coming Wave — Mustafa Suleyman ও Michael Bhaskar

Summary in 15 minutes. Every great technology eventually sweeps over the world like a wave. This one is different — and so is the question of how to handle it. The technology of intelligence and the technology of life — and why this wave is unlike any before it. The wave will put states under strain. To find a way between catastrophe and dystopia, Suleyman offers ten steps. Big policy is the job of governments and companies. But being an alert citizen and keeping your family safe starts with you.

Key ideas of "The Coming Wave"

The Wave and the Dilemma

Every great technology eventually sweeps over the world like a wave. This one is different — and so is the question of how to handle it.

1. A Flood Story: A wave is coming
2. Containment and the Great Dilemma: We can’t hold it back — and we can’t let it run
3. Technology Spreads: The lesson of history
4. Why Containment Fails: The one partial exception: nuclear weapons

The Next Wave

The technology of intelligence and the technology of life — and why this wave is unlike any before it.

1. The Technology of Intelligence: From Breakout to AlphaGo to language models
2. The Technology of Life: Reading, editing and writing DNA
3. Four Features: Why this wave is different

Risk and the Narrow Path

The wave will put states under strain. To find a way between catastrophe and dystopia, Suleyman offers ten steps.

1. The Grand Bargain: How fragility spreads
2. Catastrophe or Dystopia?: Will power concentrate — or fragment?
3. Ten Steps Toward Containment: Not one measure, but all of them together
4. Our Note: Looking Back from 2026: What has happened since the book came out

Put It into Practice

Big policy is the job of governments and companies. But being an alert citizen and keeping your family safe starts with you.

1. The 7-Day Plan: One task a day. Tick it off when done.
2. One-Page Cheat Sheet: The whole book at a glance — save it
3. Final Word — Through the Wave: The only way is through

From the free first chapter

From Manu in ancient Hindu texts to the Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah’s ark, humanity keeps telling the story of a great flood that washes the old world away. Suleyman argues that our history has been shaped by waves too — waves of technology. Fire, farming, writing, the printing press, electricity, the internet: each one remade society.

The coming wave has two technologies at its core: artificial intelligence and synthetic biology — the ability to read, edit and write DNA. The warning comes from someone who helped build it: in 2010 Suleyman co-founded DeepMind in London with Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg; Google bought the company in 2014.

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