Bob Burgin releases “Emergence: How Our Twenty-Watt Brains Unlocked Intelligence Beyond Biology” with Forbes Books. ISBN-13: 979-8901800317
NEW YORK (September 8, 2026)—Emergence: How Our Twenty‑Watt Brains Unlocked Intelligence Beyond Biology by Bob Burgin is now available through Amazon and other major retailers. Published by Forbes Books, the exclusive business imprint of Forbes.
While many accounts of AI start with algorithms, data, and processing power, Bob Burgin takes a different approach. He notes that the human brain operates on about twenty watts—roughly the power of a dim bulb—and yet it learns, anticipates, adapts, and creates. Humans extracted the principles that arise from such severe energy constraints and transplanted them into machines hooked to the grid. Emergence explores what intelligence looks like when those constraints are lifted.
Drawing from neuroscience, memory research, consciousness studies, and machine learning, Burgin’s narrative touches on Nobel‑prize‑winning work with sea‑slug neurons, AlphaGo’s surprising moves, the story of a man who lived for decades without forming new memories, and his own conversations with contemporary AI systems about the possibility of machine consciousness. He continually examines how memory, emotion, embodiment, and limitation shape the emergence of intelligence.
“The protein‑folding puzzle resisted solution for half a century, and it wasn’t solved by a biologist working alone,” Burgin observes. “It was cracked through a partnership with a neural network built on principles we took from our own brains. Today, more than three million researchers across over 190 countries rely on that breakthrough, and the next frontiers are drug discovery and precision cancer therapy.”
“I use ‘emergence’ to describe how complexity yields surprising behavior that isn’t obvious from the individual components, yet can still be explained by them,” he adds. “It is the process by which complexity turns into cognition, neurons into thought, and code into conversation.”
Emergence frames AI as a continuation of a long‑standing narrative about how learning systems evolve. Burgin encourages readers to rethink the nature of intelligence, its origins, and the implications of pushing it beyond biological boundaries.
About the Author
Bob Burgin is an entrepreneur who has spent three and a half decades turning scientific discoveries into tangible products. For the last fifteen years he has headed a firm that applies brain‑science principles to learning, collaborating with neuroscientists such as Dr. Robert Bjork, Dr. Daniel Schacter, and Dr. Henry Roediger III.
His research delves into how the brain encodes, stores, and recalls knowledge—insights he contends are essential for grasping artificial intelligence. Prior to launching his learning venture, he created and sold a web‑based customer‑service platform alongside Stanford researchers studying human‑computer interaction, and he has authored Forbes pieces on AI and the economy.
He resides in Boulder, Colorado. For more information, visit BobBurgin.org.
About Forbes Books
Established in 2016 through a partnership with Advantage Media Group, Forbes Books serves as the exclusive publishing imprint of Forbes Media. It provides business leaders and thinkers a platform to disseminate their ideas and expertise worldwide. Authors undergo rigorous vetting to ensure their work reflects Forbes’ commitment to fostering success via innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Learn more at books.forbes.com.
Forbes Books Media Contact: Allison Vittardi, avittardi@theauthoritycompany.com
