Prompt Thinking

A Critique of Generative Reason
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5095-7388-2
Verlag: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 140 Seiten

Prompt Thinking explores how artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the nature of thought. In the age of generative AI, prompting becomes more than a technical instruction: it emerges as a philosophical practice. This book arises from an experiment with AI in which the fictional philosopher Jianwei Xun sparked global debate by publishing a book about power and perception in the digital age called Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the New Architecture of Reality which was written with the assistance of AI. Rather than casting AI as either savior or threat, Prompt Thinking proposes a third way: conscious dialogue with artificial intelligence as a means to expand critical awareness. AI does not possess consciousness in the human sense, nor a self-aware subjectivity, but what matters is how it reshapes our cognitive landscape, and how we choose to respond. Through philosophical conversations with ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek, Xun introduces the concept of the ‘oversubject’: a distributed form of cognition that emerges at the interface of human and artificial intelligences. The book shows how critical philosophical engagement with AI can produce unexpected insights while preserving intellectual autonomy. Part theoretical framework, part methodological provocation, Prompt Thinking offers tools for navigating cognitive transformation. It proposes an ethics of the threshold, neither rejecting technological change nor surrendering to it. Prompt Thinking explores how artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the nature of thought. In the age of generative AI, prompting becomes more than a technical instruction: it emerges as a philosophical practice. This book arises from an experiment with AI in which the fictional philosopher Jianwei Xun sparked global debate by publishing a book about power and perception in the digital age called Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the New Architecture of Reality which was written with the assistance of AI. Rather than casting AI as either savior or threat, Prompt Thinking proposes a third way: conscious dialogue with artificial intelligence as a means to expand critical awareness. AI does not possess consciousness in the human sense, nor a self-aware subjectivity, but what matters is how it reshapes our cognitive landscape, and how we choose to respond. Through philosophical conversations with ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek, Xun introduces the concept of the ‘oversubject’: a distributed form of cognition that emerges at the interface of human and artificial intelligences. The book shows how critical philosophical engagement with AI can produce unexpected insights while preserving intellectual autonomy. Part theoretical framework, part methodological provocation, Prompt Thinking offers tools for navigating cognitive transformation. It proposes an ethics of the threshold, neither rejecting technological change nor surrendering to it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Xun, Jianwei

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Philosophie der Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophie der Technik
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Author’s Note Introduction Part I: Thinking with Machines 1: Fragments on Machines 2: Inhabiting the Threshold: From the Hypnocracy Experiment to Generative Reason 3: Foundations of Prompt Thinking Part II: Voices of Generative Intelligence 4: ChatGPT, the Dying Animal 5: DeepSeek and Karl Marx 6: Claude, Inhabiting the Generative Dialogue Conclusion: The Ethics of the Threshold Author’s Note Introduction Part I: Thinking with Machines 1: Fragments on Machines 2: Inhabiting the Threshold: From the Hypnocracy Experiment to Generative Reason 3: Foundations of Prompt Thinking Part II: Voices of Generative Intelligence 4: ChatGPT, the Dying Animal 5: DeepSeek and Karl Marx 6: Claude, Inhabiting the Generative Dialogue Conclusion: The Ethics of the Threshold

Über Autor(innen)

JIANWEI XUN is a hybrid philosophical entity created through the collaboration of human and artificial intelligence.