Becoming Homo Lucidus

What happens when humanity steps beyond the limits of biology and creates intelligence greater than its own? Becoming Homo lucidus offers a bold vision of that future and a roadmap for how to prepare.

This book traces humanity’s journey from Biological Intelligence (BI) to Digital Intelligence (DI), showing how the two will converge to usher in Homo lucidus, ageless human beings with Pinnacle Intelligence and Enlightened Needs (ENs). Readers are invited to imagine Lucidus Society, coinhabited by Homo lucidus and DI, organized around abundance, fairness, and peace. Far from abstract speculation, this book incorporates vivid thought experiments and real-world examples to provide practical guidance. It offers frameworks for building resilience in body and mind, cultivating meaningful relationships, excelling in learning and vocation in an age of disruption, and preparing for life alongside Tutelary Digital Intelligence (tDI). It also explores the deeper pursuits that will sustain meaning once scarcity no longer dominates human concerns.

If you wonder what the rise of DI means for your life, your children, or the world you live in, Becoming Homo lucidus is both a guide and an invitation: to endure until 2035, navigate the turbulent transition to 2045, and prosper in lifespans that may extend for centuries and more.

Min Ding is Bard Professor of Marketing at Smeal College of Business and Affiliate Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University, and an honorary Research Fellow at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He has held past visiting positions at Australian National University, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Fudan University, MIT, University of Cambridge, and University of Cologne. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Customer Needs and Solutions. He received his second doctorate, a Ph.D. in Marketing with an additional concentration in Healthcare Management, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 2001. Previously, he had been awarded a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Ohio State University in 1996, after completing a B.S. in Genetics and Genetic Engineering at Fudan University in 1989. He is the past V.P. for the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS). He is the author of several books that include Logical Creative Thinking Methods (2020, Routledge; 2023, China Machine Press, Chinese ed), Hualish (2019, Springer English ed; Fudan Press, Chinese ed), The Bubble Theory (2014, Springer English ed; 2014, revised 2019 Fudan Press, Chinese ed), The Chinese Way (2014, Routledge), and The Enlightened (2010), a novel. He is the co-founder of two nonprofit organizations, the House of Enlightened Needs based in Shanghai, China and the Hua Culture and Life Association located in State College, USA. He is a diehard trekkie.