Narrator: On May 12, 2017, computer screens across Britain's National Health Service (NHS) suddenly froze. A message appeared demanding a ransom in Bitcoin. This was the WannaCry attack, a piece of malware that crippled one-third of NHS trusts, forcing the cancellation of thousands of appointments and operations. The chaos was not the work of a lone genius hacker in a basement. The core of the attack was a cyberweapon called EternalBlue, developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, which had been stolen and leaked online. A tool built by a superpower to project its strength was now being used by North Korean-linked actors to hold a nation's healthcare system hostage. This single event captures the terrifying new reality we inhabit: a world where immense power is proliferating, becoming cheaper, and falling into the hands of anyone, anywhere.

In his book, The Coming Wave, technologist and AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman argues that this is just the beginning. He frames the rapid, unstoppable advance of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology as a monumental wave poised to remake our world, presenting humanity with its biggest dilemma: how to embrace progress without unleashing catastrophe.

Narrator: Suleyman argues that technology is not a series of isolated inventions but a great, roiling wave. Once a powerful technology is created, its natural tendency is to spread, becoming cheaper, easier to use, and more accessible over time. This pattern of proliferation is the default state of human innovation.

Consider the automobile. When Carl Benz invented the Motorwagen in 1886, it was a fragile, expensive curiosity. It was his wife Bertha’s daring 65-mile road trip in 1888 that first demonstrated its practical potential. Yet, it remained a luxury for the rich. The true wave began with Henry Ford. By implementing the moving assembly line, Ford slashed the price of his Model T. He famously said, "Every time I reduce the charge for our car by one dollar, I get a thousand new buyers." He was right. In 1915, only 10% of Americans owned a car; by 1930, that number was nearly 60%. The car proliferated, and in doing so, it reshaped society, creating suburbs, highways, and a new global economy. This same pattern—invention, refinement, cost reduction, and mass adoption—is now happening at an unprecedented speed with AI and synthetic biology.

Narrator: If proliferation is the default, then the central challenge becomes what Suleyman calls "the containment problem"—the ability to control, limit, or even halt a technology. History shows that successful containment is extraordinarily rare. Once an idea is out, it is nearly impossible to put back in the box.

The Ottoman Empire, for instance, resisted the printing press for nearly 300 years, fearing the unregulated spread of knowledge. Scribes and calligraphers, whose livelihoods were threatened, supported the ban. But eventually, the sheer utility and falling cost of printing made the technology irresistible. The ban was lifted, but the delay left the empire far behind a rapidly modernizing Europe. The only partial success story for containment is nuclear weapons. Their immense destructive power, staggering cost, and the conscious nonproliferation policies of a few powerful states have limited their spread to just nine countries. But even this is a fragile success, a chilling history of near misses and accidents, like the 1961 incident when a B-52 bomber broke apart over North Carolina, dropping a hydrogen bomb that came within a single switch of detonating. For the coming wave of AI and biotech, which are cheap, digital, and easily replicated, the nuclear model offers little hope.

Narrator: Suleyman identifies four unique features of the coming wave that make it uniquely difficult to contain. The first is asymmetry. These technologies give small groups or even individuals the power to challenge large nation-states. This was vividly demonstrated during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A 40-kilometer-long Russian armored column advancing on Kyiv was halted and ultimately routed not by a conventional army, but by a small, agile drone unit called Aerorozvidka. Using cheap, commercially available drones modified to drop explosives, this team of hobbyists and engineers created chaos, demonstrating how a small, technologically adept force can inflict disproportionate damage on a superpower.

The other three features are hyper-evolution, the breathtaking speed at which these technologies improve; omni-use, the fact they can be used for both good and evil (an AI that discovers new medicines can also design new poisons); and autonomy, their growing ability to operate and make decisions without direct human oversight. Together, these four features create a perfect storm, amplifying risk and making control incredibly difficult.

Narrator: Containment is further complicated by a set of powerful, unstoppable incentives that propel the wave forward. The most significant of these is great power competition. When DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated world champion Lee Sedol at the game of Go in 2016, it was seen in the West as a triumph of AI. But in Asia, it was perceived as a "Sputnik moment"—a Western firm planting its flag on a cherished cultural institution.

The event sent shockwaves through the Chinese government. Just months later, it announced a national plan to become the world's primary AI innovation center by 2030. This techno-nationalism creates a relentless cycle. As Vladimir Putin has stated, whoever becomes the leader in AI "will become the ruler of the world." This competitive dynamic, combined with immense financial incentives for corporations and the genuine desire to solve global challenges like climate change and disease, creates a powerful engine driving the wave forward, making any call for a pause or slowdown seem naive.

Narrator: This relentless, uncontainable proliferation forces the nation-state, and humanity itself, into a terrible dilemma. Suleyman argues that we are steering between two grim futures: catastrophe and dystopia.

Catastrophe is the future of openness, where technology proliferates without sufficient guardrails. In this world, a lone actor could use a DNA printer and AI to engineer a deadly pandemic. AI-powered cyberattacks could cripple critical infrastructure. Autonomous drone swarms, like the one used to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist, could become commonplace, democratizing assassination. Disinformation and deepfakes could erode social trust to the point of collapse.

The alternative is dystopia. Fearing catastrophe, states could use the very same technologies to achieve total control. A government could implement a system of pervasive surveillance, using facial recognition and social credit scores to monitor and manage every aspect of its citizens' lives, crushing dissent before it begins. This is not science fiction; it is the path China is already on with its "Sharp Eyes" program and comprehensive social monitoring. The dilemma is stark: suffer the chaos of uncontained technology or surrender freedom for the promise of security.

Narrator: Despite the bleak outlook, Suleyman insists that containment must be possible. Stagnation is not an option; we must find a way through the wave. He proposes a ten-step, multi-layered strategy for containment. This is not a simple checklist but a call for a fundamental shift in our approach.

It begins with technical safety, treating AI and biosafety with the urgency of an Apollo program. It requires robust audits and third-party verification to ensure systems are secure. A key strategy is to identify and control choke points in the supply chain. For example, the U.S. government’s 2022 export controls on advanced semiconductors to China represent a real-world attempt to use a choke point to slow a competitor's progress and buy time. The plan also calls for new models of accountable businesses that prioritize purpose alongside profit, reformed governments, and new international alliances to set global norms. Ultimately, containment requires a holistic approach, from the code itself to global treaties, all aimed at navigating the narrow channel between catastrophe and dystopia.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from The Coming Wave is that the fundamental challenge of our time has flipped. For most of history, the goal was to create and unleash technology's power. Today, the challenge is to contain that unleashed power. The book serves as an urgent warning that the incentives driving AI and synthetic biology are too powerful to ignore, and the consequences of inaction could be existential.

Suleyman leaves us with a profound challenge. The greatest barrier to containment may not be technical or political, but psychological. He identifies a "pessimism-aversion trap"—our tendency to look away from potentially dark realities. The critical first step, therefore, is to confront the dilemma head-on. The wave is coming, but it has not yet crashed over us. Will we have the courage to face its scale and steer it toward a future that is both prosperous and safe?