Our Final Invention
By James Barrat
- Release Date: 2013-10-01
- Genre: Computers & Internet
Description
Elon Musk named Our Final Invention one of 5 books everyone should read about the future
A Huffington Post Definitive Tech Book of 2013
Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smartphone and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence.
In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail—human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine.
Through profiles of tech visionaries, industry watchdogs, and groundbreaking AI systems, Our Final Invention explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?
Reviews
Tedious
1By DdsssaopBoring, repetitive, poorly written, unconvincing. Filled with quotes as filler. Doomsday always sells.Excellent First Exposure to the ASI problem
5By UntrancedAlthough Bostrom's "Superintelligence" is getting more press, this is the better primer for the layman and the potential catastrophe of artificial super intelligence. Start here and follow with Bostrom's more thorough and balanced book second if so inclined.Fantastic read.
5By s3knarfThe world needs a proper open and continuous dialog on this subject. If we don't come together in this I fear the future is very dark.The future is coming and it's going to kill you!
5By kingmewithcashAn excellent short read that probably should be mandatory for the general population of technology buffs. It's hard to visualize the fact that you're not reading about science-fiction which makes the fear even greater.