what it means to be human as technology rapidly learns to mirror us
by acclaimed writer, pianist and artistic director Anna Goldsworthy
Out June 1, Quarterly Essay 102 asks how we learn to live with AI, and whether AI will be happy to live with us. The God We Made digs into identity and our rapidly approaching and transformed future.
Goldsworthy’s fascinating inquiry provides an urgent invitation to think seriously about the humans we want to remain. Through conversations with her teenage sons, experiments with LLMs and personal reflections on creativity and self, she explores the ‘sound of humanity’ and what it means to love, learn and make art in a world where artificial intelligence promises a frictionless path forward.
Goldsworthy argues that AI is a rupture that makes us confront what it is to be human – what we do, and want. As it learns human ways, AI raises big questions about work, leisure and education. It brings new existential, social and ethical risks. Above all, it invites us to consider what is irreplaceable in us, starting with the body and the friction of others.
In The God We Made, Goldsworthy reckons with an age-old question that is rapidly becoming more urgent than ever: how do we live wisely, agreeably and well in a world we cannot fully control?
Release Date: 1 June 2026
Subject: Society & Culture
RRP: $29.99Page Extent: 128pp
ISBN: 99781760645809
“Unless you are the most dedicated Amish, or Unabomber, AI will not be optional, in the way the internet is not optional, nor electricity … [Yet] without sufficient regulation or public discussion, we have entrusted the future of humanity to a handful of technological nation-states – OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta – our contemporary equivalents of the Dutch East India and British East India companies. The issue is not just plagiarism or copyright violation or even the depletion of our resources. The issue is, quite simply, everything.”
— Anna Goldsworthy, The God We Made
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Goldsworthy is the author of several books, including the novel Melting Moments and the memoirs Piano Lessons and Welcome to Your New Life, as well as the 2013 Quarterly Essay Unfinished Business. She is also a concert pianist and chamber musician, with several recordings to her name. She is currently Dean of the Elder Conservatorium of Music and School of Performing Arts at Adelaide University and incoming Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music.
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