What is education for when machines may exceed human capability in every cognitive domain?

The familiar defence of education holds that it develops the capacities machines cannot replicate. This book argues that this defence fails in principle, not only under artificial superintelligence, and replaces it with the formation argument: education matters because of what it makes people into.

Drawing on the history of educational reform, complexity science, and the moral philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre and Shannon Vallor, the book shows why architectural change in education has followed shocks rather than arguments. It sets out a theory of change built on demonstrating institutions that are ready before the transition arrives, not after.

For educators, institutional leaders, and policymakers deciding now what their institutions are for.