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Who Are We Now?
From leading AI researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas comes an exploration of how biology, ecology, sexuality, history, and culture have intertwined to create a dynamic "us" that can neither be called natural nor artificial. Identity politics occupies the front line in today's culture wars, pitting generations against each other, and progressive cities against the rural traditions of our past. Rich in data and detail, Who Are We Now? goes beyond today's headlines to connect our current reality to a larger more-than-human story. At the heart of the book is a set of surveys conducted between 2016 and 2021, asking thousands of anonymous respondents all over the United States questions about their b...
Ubi Sunt
Are we living in reality? Is this the past, or the future? And is there a human on the other side of this screen? These questions rear up and twist back on themselves in Ubi Sunt, a genre-breaking imaginative work by Blaise Agüera y Arcas. The title, borrowed from Latin and Medieval poetics, describes elegiac verses modeled on the formula Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?" Such was the mood of the anonymous early English poets who spun stories of giants and ancient battles amid the tumbled Roman masonry of 8th century Europe. Fragments of our own digital civilization stand like ruined columns throughout Ubi Sunt--transcribed lectures and drone foot...
What Is Life?
What life is, and how its essence can be understood as computation that grows more complex over time in symbiotic relationships. In 1944, quantum mechanics pioneer Erwin Schrödinger wrote a slim but influential volume, What Is Life?, posing the primary question that rendered biology so mysterious to a physicist. How can life and all its attendant complexities come to exist in a random universe, governed by simple laws, whose disorder only increases over time? This small book, richly illustrated and written for a general audience, offers a deep and surprising answer, drawing on decades of theory and existing literature as well as recent experiments in artificial life. Beginning with ideas de...
What Is Intelligence?
What intelligence really is, and how AI’s emergence is a natural consequence of evolution. It has come as a shock to some AI researchers that a large neural net that predicts next words seems to produce a system with general intelligence. Yet this is consistent with a long-held view among some neuroscientists that the brain evolved precisely to predict the future—the “predictive brain” hypothesis. In What Is Intelligence?, Blaise Agüera y Arcas takes up this idea—that prediction is fundamental not only to intelligence and the brain, but to life itself—and explores the wide-ranging implications. These include radical new perspectives on the computational properties of living syst...
The Artist in the Machine
An authority on creativity introduces us to AI-powered computers that are creating art, literature, and music that may well surpass the creations of humans. Today's computers are composing music that sounds “more Bach than Bach,” turning photographs into paintings in the style of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and even writing screenplays. But are computers truly creative—or are they merely tools to be used by musicians, artists, and writers? In this book, Arthur I. Miller takes us on a tour of creativity in the age of machines. Miller, an authority on creativity, identifies the key factors essential to the creative process, from “the need for introspection” to “the ability to discover...
Machine Decision Is Not Final
An interdisciplinary, cross-cultural collection that decenters familiar narratives to provide a fresh perspective on what artificial intelligence is today, and what it might become. Historians, media theorists, science-fiction writers, philosophers, and artists from China and elsewhere reexamine the nation’s intense engagement with AI, moving beyond the clichés that still dominate contemporary debate. Today, visions of the contested future of AI veer between common planetary goals and a new Cold War, as culturally-specific models of intelligence, speculative traditions, and thought experiments come up against the emergence of novel forms of cognition that cannot be reduced to any historic...
Reality+
From one of our leading thinkers, a dazzling philosophical journey through virtual worlds In the coming decades, the technology that enables virtual and augmented reality will improve beyond recognition. Within a century, world-renowned philosopher David J. Chalmers predicts, we will have virtual worlds that are impossible to distinguish from non-virtual worlds. But is virtual reality just escapism? In a highly original work of 'technophilosophy', Chalmers argues categorically, no: virtual reality is genuine reality. Virtual worlds are not second-class worlds. We can live a meaningful life in virtual reality - and increasingly, we will. What is reality, anyway? How can we lead a good life? Is there a god? How do we know there's an external world - and how do we know we're not living in a computer simulation? In Reality+, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of philosophy, using cutting-edge technology to provide invigorating new answers to age-old questions. Drawing on examples from pop culture, literature and film that help bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it.
Collaborative Intelligence
A deep look into the multifaceted landscape of artificial intelligence, considering AI’s ethical and societal implications and celebrating its diverse and innovative applications. In this edited collection Collaborative Intelligence, Mira Lane and Arathi Sethumadhavan embark on a captivating exploration of artificial intelligence. The book delves deeply into the dynamic interplay between theory and practice, shedding light on the transformative potential and complexities of AI. For practitioners deeply immersed in the world of AI, Lane and Sethumadhavan offer firsthand accounts and insights from technologists, academics, and thought leaders, as well as a series of compelling case studies, ...
Resist Phony Encores!
Rhys weaves anecdotes from his life in performance through designer and long-term collaborator Mark James' xeroxed graphics and doctored photos, as well as cue cards, which - for the past 15 years - Rhys has used as a part of his live performances. Applause! Louder! Thank You! Etc. These cue cards have gradually become more ambitious and absurd: Wild Abandon! Burger Franchise Opportunity! Generic Festival Reaction! The crowd generally goes wild on cue, prompting Rhys to seek explanations for the unimaginable highs and weirdness of life in music through the lens of crowd psychology. The book will appeal to students of linguistics, propaganda, and graphic design, and anyone interested in music...
Art and Artificial Intelligence
The overriding question discussed in this Element can be stated simply as: can computers create art? This Element presents an overview of the controversies raised by various answers to this question. A major difficulty is that the technology is developing rapidly, and there are still many uncertainties and knowledge gaps as to what is possible today and in the near future. But a number of controversial issues are identified and discussed. The position taken on controversial issues will depend on assumptions made about the technology, about the nature and location of consciousness, about art and creativity. Therefore, a number of hypothetical answers are outlined, related to the assumptions made.
