So how did human information networks start? Direct cultural learning (imitating to absorb skills and knowledge) let early humans pass wisdom from a lifetime (e.g. how to build a good shelter) to others—who in turn passed on their own, often unconsciously. The puzzle of reality would thus get ‘solved’ a little more with each piece of generational wisdom being added to it.

AI has never had the experience of living a single human life. Yet we're asking it to help us make sense of the world, and to help us navigate it. 

Eighteen crucial years ago, William Ruddiman wrote in Adbusters: "The temperature rises. Water grows scarce. Animals vanish. The skies turn deadly. Our response so far: total inertia. Our fears have been eased by the assumption that we could, in a pinch, band together and turn things around if they start getting really bad."

Our civilization has unwittingly damaged the biosphere. But it is well within our scientific and economic capabilities to heal nature and to live alongside it.