I picture society as a giant human—a living organism like each of us, only much bigger.

What's Our Problem? (2023)

Portrait of Tim Urban

Tim Urban

Tim Urban has become one of the Internet’s most popular writers. With wry stick-figure illustrations and occasionally epic prose on everything from procrastination to artificial intelligence, Urban's blog, Wait But Why, has garnered millions of unique page views, thousands of patrons and famous fans like Elon Musk.

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Cover image for Neuralink and the Brain's Magical Future

Neuralink and the Brain's Magical Future

What if your brain could seamlessly connect to a computer, enhancing your intelligence and unlocking new abilities? Tim Urban dives into Neuralink, Elon Musk’s ambitious project to merge minds with AI. Our brains, while remarkable, are slow compared to machines—Neuralink’s neural lace technology could change that. But this isn’t just about creating cyborgs; it’s about overcoming human limitations and shaping the future of intelligence itself. Are we on the verge of a true symbiosis with AI?

Religion for the Nonreligious

The Story of Us

A whimsical and thought-provoking look at how large numbers of interthinking brains turn individual organisms into a larger, coherent superorganism, and how easy it is for such a superorganism to deteriorate if its constituent cells neglect it.

Cover image for What's Our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies

What's Our Problem?

A Self-Help Book for Societies

What’s Our Problem? is a deep and expansive analysis of our modern times, in the classic style of Wait But Why, packed with original concepts, sticky metaphors, and 300 drawings. The book provides an entirely new framework and language for thinking and talking about today’s complex world. Instead of focusing on the usual left-center-right horizontal political axis, which is all about what we think, the book introduces a vertical axis that explores how we think, as individuals and as groups. Readers will find themselves on a delightful and fascinating journey that will ultimately change the way they see the world around them.