By 18, It’s Too Late:
Relearning How to Think in the Age of AI
Photo credit: Public domain – ruins of Aristotle’s Lyceum, where 2,400 years of philosophical wonder began.
After IEEE DESSERT 2025, Athens
This may be the last decade in which humans still remember how to think independently of AI.
Standing near Aristotle’s Lyceum in Athens, we confronted an education crisis that will determine whether humanity governs its own creations—or quietly surrenders to them.
The Labyrinth We Built
Stanisław Lem warned:
“The Internet is the most advanced labyrinth in history.”
Today, the walls of that labyrinth are the blue-lit screens of our smartphones. Seductive. Ubiquitous. Invisible.
We need Ariadne’s thread. A way back to thought. A way back to the places we have lost.
Let us begin where systematic thinking once began: the Athenian Lyceum.
I. Athens and the Genius Loci
The 15th IEEE DESSERT Conference took place in the shadow of Aristotle’s Lyceum. Not by chance.
Athens awakens what Plato called anamnesis: not learning something new, but remembering what we once knew and have forgotten.
It reopens questions that modern systems are designed to bypass.
Here in Athens, Plato asked 2,400 years ago:
“What will govern us?”
For ancient Athens, the answer was democracy. For us, the emerging answer is AI-mediated democracy.
But the deeper question remains: What will govern the AI that governs democracy?
II. The Lem–von Hoerner Trap
Two warnings, decades old, still resonate.
Sebastian von Hoerner (SETI):
“Science and technology are driven by the struggle for domination and the desire for an easy life. The former leads to complete destruction; the latter, to biological or psychological degeneration.”
Stanisław Lem:
“Every civilisation has two paths: to threaten itself to death, or to pet itself to death.”
We survived the first path—the atomic bomb.
Today, we are embracing the second: AI.
It is not threatening. It is seductive.
“Shall I write the next post for you?”
Helpful. Efficient. Comfortable. One gentle pet at a time.
No rebellion. No takeover. Just subtle surrender—until we forget how to think independently.
III. What Modern Education Destroys
Modern education trains optimisers but systematically erodes what matters most:
✘ Creativity — replaced by recombining ideas
✘ Dignity — reduced to productivity metrics
✘ Solidarity — replaced by transactional networking
✘ Judgment — replaced by algorithmic decision-making
Graduates can optimise anything—but envision nothing.
They can process infinite data—but cannot create meaning.
These are not the people who should govern Technologies of Life.
IV. The Path We Abandoned
Education once followed:
Wonder → Understanding → Knowledge → Wisdom → Technology
Wonder (thaumazein) — astonishment at existence
Wisdom — judgment about what matters
Technology — applied only after wisdom
Now we jump straight from:
Data → Experiments → Technology
Efficiency replaces judgment. Calculation replaces meaning. Convenience replaces wonder.
V. By 18, It’s Already Too Late
This is not a critique of universities.
It is a fact about human development.
By 18, the foundations of how we think are largely set.
Students arrive after 12 years of optimisation training:
finding correct answers instead of asking better questions
maximising test scores instead of cultivating judgment
categorising information instead of synthesising meaning
Neural pathways are stabilised. Cognitive habits are hardwired.
The critical window is ages 12–18.
Currently, this period trains optimisers—then we wonder why graduates cannot govern wisely.
By 18, it’s already too late to learn how to think.
VI. Space Lykeion: The Answer
The Space Lykeion is a parallel educational track, designed for the critical window:
Foundation: Trivium & Quadrivium (Aristotle)
Method: Experience before abstraction; beauty as teacher; technology as amplifier
Tools: VR/AR, AI as Socratic partner, astronaut mentorship
Ages: 12–18
Goal: Cultivate philosopher-engineers who can govern Technologies of Life
VII. Why This Decade Is Decisive
We are the last generation that still remembers what is being lost:
dignity beyond metrics
creativity beyond pattern-matching
solidarity beyond optimisation
judgment beyond calculation
Ten years from now, decision-makers may only know optimisation.
AI does not need to rebel. It only needs to make thinking optional.
And that is exactly what we are choosing—one convenience at a time.
VIII. The Choice
The threat is not that machines will start to think.
The threat is that people will stop.
The hope: human vision guiding machine power.
The method: education that cultivates synthesis, not just optimisation.
The time: this decade—before it’s too late.
FROM THIS PLACE—WHERE WONDER BEGAN—WE MAKE THE QUANTUM LEAP
Space Lykeion
Resilient nodes from Earth to the stars
Building a dependable human presence in the age of AI
Athens, 21 December 2025
Join us.
Adam Ustynowicz
Founder, Quantum Leap Society
Creator of the Chopin-Cupola Experiment
Initiator of the Space Lykeion
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the organizers of the roundtable discussion at the DESSERT 2025 conference in Athens: Professor Nikolaos Bardis, Professor Vyacheslav Kharchenko, and Professor Andrzej Ruciński, for giving me the opportunity to deliver this presentation.
Their vision in hosting this discussion at the historic site of Aristotle’s Lyceum created the perfect context for reflecting on education, wisdom, and the future of human intelligence in the age of AI.