A possibly AI-generated book warning us not to outsource our thinking to AI. You really couldn’t make this up. Or perhaps you could. With a prompt.
I came across a book that immediately raised my eyebrows: “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Thinking” by Kyle Patterson, published on September 10, 2026, by Insight Reads Press.
It promises to teach us how to prevent artificial intelligence from taking over our thinking. To make its case, it invokes Aristotle, Socrates, Seneca, Montaigne, neuroscience, and London’s famous taxi drivers. All wrapped up in a supposedly rigorous, research-backed, practical guide to reclaiming our minds.
Except that the book’s promotional text reads suspiciously like AI-generated marketing sludge. Endless superlatives, grand promises, formulaic lists, and a generous helping of search-engine-optimized buzzwords.
So I asked ChatGPT whether this book might have been AI-generated.
And things got interesting. (1/4)
padeluun ⁂
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2026-10-14 16:18:24 UTC
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"content": "A possibly AI-generated book warning us not to outsource our thinking to AI. You really couldn’t make this up. Or perhaps you could. With a prompt.\n\nI came across a book that immediately raised my eyebrows: “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Thinking” by Kyle Patterson, published on September 10, 2026, by Insight Reads Press.\n\nIt promises to teach us how to prevent artificial intelligence from taking over our thinking. To make its case, it invokes Aristotle, Socrates, Seneca, Montaigne, neuroscience, and London’s famous taxi drivers. All wrapped up in a supposedly rigorous, research-backed, practical guide to reclaiming our minds.\n\nExcept that the book’s promotional text reads suspiciously like AI-generated marketing sludge. Endless superlatives, grand promises, formulaic lists, and a generous helping of search-engine-optimized buzzwords.\n\nSo I asked ChatGPT whether this book might have been AI-generated.\n\nAnd things got interesting. (1/4)",
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