What Is Life?
We are delighted to share the official release of the inaugural title in the Antikythera x MIT Press book series: What Is Life? by leading AI researcher and longtime Antikythera collaborator Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
Taking its title from Erwin Schrödinger’s seminal 1944 work, What Is Life? explores the fundamental nature of life through a computational lens. Agüera y Arcas argues that self-reproduction—and thus life itself—is inherently computational. Drawing on decades of research, existing literature, and recent experiments in artificial life, he demonstrates how life’s essence can be understood as computation that evolves in symbiotic relationships, growing in complexity over time.
This beautifully designed, richly illustrated volume—created in collaboration with James Goggin of Practise—is the first part of a larger work, What Is Intelligence?. Set for release in September 2025, What Is Intelligence? further develops Agüera y Arcas’s computational and symbiotic perspective on intelligence, spanning simple organisms, brains, societies, and AI.
Learn more about What Is Intelligence?
The Antikythera x MIT Press book series explores critical questions at the intersection of planetary computation, science, and society. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on our next titles.
