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The Age of Em
- Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like?
Many think the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations, or ems. Scan a human brain, then run a model with the same connections on a fast computer, and you have a robot brain, but recognizably human.
Train an em to do some job and copy it a million times; an army of workers is at your disposal. When they can be made cheaply, within perhaps a century, ems will displace humans in most jobs. In this new economic era, the world economy may double in size every few weeks.
Some say we can't know the future, especially following such a disruptive new technology, but Professor Robin Hanson sets out to prove them wrong. Applying decades of expertise in physics, computer science, and economics, he uses standard theories to paint a detailed picture of a world dominated by ems.
While human lives don't change greatly in the em era, em lives are as different from ours as our lives are from those of our farmer and forager ancestors. Ems make us question common assumptions of moral progress, because they reject many of the values we hold dear.
Read about em mind speeds, body sizes, job training and career paths, energy use and cooling infrastructure, virtual reality, aging and retirement, death and immortality, security, wealth inequality, religion, teleportation, identity, cities, politics, law, war, status, friendship, and love.
This book shows you just how strange your descendants may be, though ems are no stranger than we would appear to our ancestors. To most ems, it seems good to be an em.
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What listeners say about The Age of Em
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- David
- 11-26-16
30% of time me spent describing itself
The author spends almost as much time describing the structure of the book and structure of his research as he does talking about the ACTUAL content. I prefer books that tell me directly what they have to say, versus telling me ad nauseam HOW they are going to tell me about it. LOTS of wasted time.
8 people found this helpful
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- Ageel Alassif
- 03-30-17
An analytical book suited as a reference book
Struggled to finish it , reads more like a reference book than a straight read.
5 people found this helpful
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- Emmaly
- 07-02-17
Couldn't finish it
I couldn't finish it. It felt like it was never going to get to the point. That means a lot coming from me as I'll sit through just about anything.
4 people found this helpful
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- KA
- 01-11-17
Just plain awful, some thing that could be said within 1 hour, unnecessarily and painfully prolonged.
within 1 hour, unnecessarily and painfully prolonged. The author assumes throwing big words around makes him sound interacting. The worst book on AI I had listened to so far.
4 people found this helpful
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- Sumguynobuddynoes
- 05-20-17
interesting but way too thorough
Great number if assumptions draws upon authors perception of Emulation robot society and behaviours.
Interesting concept, but too intricate in detail to be credible. Got boring in the details of Em societal workings.
3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 07-12-18
Beginning is engaging and worth the time.
Interesting thought experiment and I appreciated the author's careful consideration to justify the scenario he presented. I found the content slightly repetitive, or too "in-the-weeds," at times which lead to a longer duration that caused me to lose interest during the latter two-thirds of the book.
2 people found this helpful
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- Peter Golub
- 06-13-22
brilliant boring
Just 'cause it's boring doesn't make it's not brilliant. I'm asked to include more words in a review. Here they are.
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- RobertS
- 07-12-21
A must-read for anyone interested in mind uploading
The book is an unusually detailed treatise on societal implications of mind uploading, as if written by an impartial sociologist.
It’s written as a research work, not as a work of science fiction. So, if you expect to be entertained, you’ll be disappointed.
But if you’re interested in futurology or mind uploading as scholarly disciplines, the book is a must-read.
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- Brandon Brooks
- 12-11-20
Like nothing I've ever read before
Age of Em is an analysis of a potential dystopian/utopian future backed up by a truly staggering amount of evidence and research. Here's what others have said:
"One of the great risks of futurology is to fail to realize how different societies and institutions can be – the same way uncreative costume designers make their aliens look like humans with green skin. A lot of our thoughts about the future involve assumptions we’ve never really examined critically. In Age of Em, Robin Hanson dynamites those assumptions.
"Age of Em is whirlwind tour through almost every science and a pretty good way to learn about the present. If you didn’t already know that wars are distributed evenly across all possible war sizes, well, read Age of Em and you will know that and many similar things.
"Age of Em shows you every part of what our weird incomprehensible posthuman descendents will be doing in loving detail. Even what kind of swear words they’ll use."
-Scott Alexander, Psychiatrist and author of "Unsong"
"When the typical economist tells me about his latest research, my standard reaction is ‘Eh, maybe.’ Then I forget about it. When Robin Hanson tells me about his latest research, my standard reaction is ‘No way! Impossible!’ Then I think about it for years."
-Tyler Cowen Economist and author of "Create Your Own Economy"
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- Nathan
- 11-13-19
An ode to the same, in a changed world
Every minute of this book amazes with staggering failures of imagination mixed with far reaching insight.
I presumed being imaginative and unimaginative were different modes of thought. If you think like that, you are in for a surprise. In Robin's world of Ems, people are the same, yet they accept work defining them. They can copy and model minds, but not significantly improve or remodel them.
The juxtaposition of accepting some drastic changes, while simultaneously worshipping at the altar of same is jarring at first , but within minutes it is addictive. By the end of the book, you see the pattern of his perception. Robin's does not paint the future as a blank slate, to be gradually scaped into the artists intentions with deeper and deeper inscriptions, as technology enables such choice.
Rather, he sees the limitations of competition, scarcity, hierarchy and selfishness go from strength to strength, come what may.
The future is modelled here as: the present, stamped with history, painted further forward, deviating only where economic theories suggest. It's deliberate and consistent, but never boring.
He reads slow with an overly repetitive rythmn to his voice, fix this by playing at 2.4x speed, and this becomes an asset, chunking phrases in tones.
Until someone shows me a better treatment of this topic, this is a must read for anyone who cares about morality, possibility, or the future.
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- Francis Murphy
- 06-01-18
Tedious !!!!!!!!
A dull idea that was obviously laboured over for considerable time that could be distilled down to a "bit of an idea". I couldn't get beyond half way, and I'm someone who rarely gives up on a book !! I wished I could my awareness at hyperspeed to get through it in the nanosecond it deserves.
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The Vital Question
- Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies, and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists.
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Ouch!
- By Mark on 06-24-16
By: Nick Lane
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The Elephant in the Brain
- Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
- By: Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus, we don't like to talk, or even think, about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain".
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Let Me Save You the Credit
- By Evert on 03-16-19
By: Kevin Simler, and others
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The Inevitable
- Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
- By: Kevin Kelly
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the 12 technological imperatives that will shape the next 30 years and transform our lives. Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives - from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture.
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Predicting is hard, especially about the future
- By Michael on 02-20-17
By: Kevin Kelly
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The Singularity Is Near
- When Humans Transcend Biology
- By: Ray Kurzweil
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: The union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
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RUINED audio.
- By Fred on 06-25-21
By: Ray Kurzweil
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Rationality: From AI to Zombies
- By: Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Narrated by: George Thomas, Robert DeRoeck, Aaron Silverbook
- Length: 49 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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What does it actually mean to be rational? Not Hollywood-style "rational", where you forsake all human feeling to embrace Cold Hard Logic, but where you make good decisions, even when it's hard; where you reason well, even in the face of massive uncertainty; where you recognize and make full use of your fuzzy intuitions and emotions, rather than trying to discard them. In Rationality: From AI to Zombies, Eliezer Yudkowsky explains the science underlying human irrationality with a mix of fables, argumentative essays, and personal vignettes.
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Great content. Some chapters should be re-recorded.
- By Geordie on 03-13-18
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The Precipice
- Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
- By: Toby Ord
- Narrated by: Toby Ord
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time. If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Our species could survive for billions of years - enough time to end disease, poverty, and injustice, and to flourish in ways unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. With the advent of nuclear weapons, humanity entered a new age, where we face existential catastrophes - those from which we could never come back.
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The 80000hours website is better
- By Cristi on 08-06-20
By: Toby Ord
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The Vital Question
- Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies, and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists.
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Ouch!
- By Mark on 06-24-16
By: Nick Lane
Related to this topic
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Napoleon's Hemorrhoids…And Other Small Events That Changed History
- By: Phil Mason
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Hilarious, fascinating, and a roller coaster of dizzying, historical what-ifs, Napoleon's Hemorrhoids is a potpourri for serious historians and casual history buffs. In one of Phil Mason's many revelations, you'll learn that Communist jets were two minutes away from opening fire on American planes during the Cuban missile crisis, when they had to turn back as they were running out of fuel. You'll discover that before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's painful hemorrhoids prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battlefield.
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They just throw the facts too fast
- By Concerned_llama on 12-11-20
By: Phil Mason
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Inspired
- How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, Second Edition
- By: Marty Cagan
- Narrated by: Marty Cagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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How do today's most successful tech companies - Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla - design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently from the vast majority of tech companies. In Inspired, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides listeners with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love.
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Great book, terrible audio wanted to ask a refund
- By Srikanth Ramanujam on 11-15-18
By: Marty Cagan
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The Selfish Gene
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.
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Better than print!
- By J. D. May on 07-31-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know
- By: The Great Courses, Joshua N. Winn
- Narrated by: Professor Joshua N. Winn
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Original Recording
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As recently as 1990, it seemed plausible that the solar system was a unique phenomenon in our galaxy. Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far.
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Fun across the universe
- By Mark on 01-08-16
By: The Great Courses, and others
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The Joy of Numbers
- By: Dr. Arthur Benjamin, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Art Benjamin
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Numbers. Like the alphabet, they’re one of the most elementary of concepts learned and memorized at a young age; but outside of figuring out tips and taxes, you probably haven’t given much thought to them since then. To a mathematician, every number has its own unique properties and personality - and when studied, played with, and manipulated, numbers can actually be tons of fun.
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Very entertaining
- By Mariam on 03-19-22
By: Dr. Arthur Benjamin, and others
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How the Earth Works
- By: Michael E. Wysession, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Michael E. Wysession
- Length: 24 hrs and 31 mins
- Original Recording
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How the Earth Works takes you on an astonishing journey through time and space. In 48 lectures, you will look at what went into making our planet - from the big bang, to the formation of the solar system, to the subsequent evolution of Earth.
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Excellent course
- By Doug B. on 05-23-19
By: Michael E. Wysession, and others