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"A dizzying display of intellect and wild imaginings by Moravec, a world-class roboticist who has himself developed clever beasts . . . Undeniably, Moravec comes across as a highly knowledgeable and creative talent--which is just what the field needs".--Kirkus Reviews.
In this compelling book, Hans Moravec predicts that machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, and that by 2050, they will surpass us. But even though Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs. "Intelligent machines, which will grow from us, learn our skills, and share our goals and values, can be viewed as children of our minds." And since they are our children, we will want them to outdistance us. In fact, in a bid for immortality, many of our descendants will choose to transform into "ex humans," as they upload themselves into advanced computers. This provocative new book, the highly anticipated follow-up to his bestselling volume Mind Children, charts the trajectory of robotics in breathtaking detail. A must read for artificial intelligence, technology, and computer enthusiasts, Moravec's freewheeling but informed speculations present a future far different than we ever dared imagine.
In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age. Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological con...
“Exposes the vast gap between the actual science underlying AI and the dramatic claims being made for it.” —John Horgan “If you want to know about AI, read this book...It shows how a supposedly futuristic reverence for Artificial Intelligence retards progress when it denigrates our most irreplaceable resource for any future progress: our own human intelligence.” —Peter Thiel Ever since Alan Turing, AI enthusiasts have equated artificial intelligence with human intelligence. A computer scientist working at the forefront of natural language processing, Erik Larson takes us on a tour of the landscape of AI to reveal why this is a profound mistake. AI works on inductive reasoning, cr...
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Bold futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near, offers a framework for envisioning the future of machine intelligence—“a book for anyone who wonders where human technology is going next” (The New York Times Book Review). “Kurzweil offers a thought-provoking analysis of human and artificial intelligence and a unique look at a future in which the capabilities of the computer and the species that invented it grow ever closer.”—BILL GATES Imagine a world where the difference between man and machine blurs, where the line between humanity and technology fades, and where the soul and the silicon chip unite. This is not science fiction. This is the ...
The first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature.
In Our Image brilliantly illuminates who we are as humans by demonstrating the surprisingly deep parallels between our motivations to replicate ourselves through computer technology and our emerging understanding of ourselves as relational beings created in God's image. This book is required reading for anyone--Christian or non-Christian--intrigued by the possibility of artificial intelligence.
We are already living in the future. Artificial intelligence is playing an even-greater role in society: from the 'weaponization' of software to the possibility of a post-antibiotic age. The Sentient Machine is the perfect guide to this brave new world. Amir Husain outlines the history behind artificial intelligence from the creation myth of Frankenstein to the advances made by technology innovators such as Elon Musk. Amir Husain asks the essential question: what is the future for humanity in a world that is dominated by machines? Will machines solve all human problems or will they lead us down a dystopian path to human irrelevance? Husain asks what will be the consequences - from job losses...
Shadows of the Mind is a profound exploration of what modern physics has to tell us about the mind, and a visionary description of what a new physics - one that is adequate to account for our extraordinary brain - might look like. It is also a bold specul