Artificial Philosophy

The governments started to crumble in 2073. There was no war. Just a collapse. I knew it was coming. I prepared. I collected a library of books - real, physical, paper books on subjects that I thought would be helpful. I found an abandoned military bunker for sale outside a small city in the wilderness. I didn’t bother to pay for it. I just moved in. Right now, I was just entering the closest thing we had to a city within two days’ driving distance. There were a few small towns closer but nothing that would have what I needed. I was looking for one place in particular. A bell rang as I ...

Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.

From Oxford's leading AI researcher comes a fun and accessible tour through the history and future of one of the most cutting edge and misunderstood field in science: artificial intelligence.

Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.

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.

Human Future: Artificial Intelligence for Everyone Will artificial intelligence replace us... or help us become more human? The humanistic guide to AI for beginners, the curious, and non-technical readers: for those who want to truly understand what artificial intelligence is, how it works, and why it will change our lives, explained simply and without technical jargon. An enlightening, surprising, and human journey. We live in a world where technology is no longer something that surrounds us, but something that flows through us. Artificial intelligence is not just a tool: it is a ...

2050: Investigative journalist Marcus Tully is grieving his wife and unborn child, ten years after they perished in a deadly heat wave that gripped the Persian Gulf. Now the whole planet is both burning and drowning, and the nations of the world decide to elect a global leader to steer humanity through the climate apocalypse. The final two candidates: a former U.S. president...and Solomon, the first artificial intellect to hold political office.

In The Paradox of Progress, Dr. Michael M. Karch delves into the ethical complexities of AI’s rapid evolution. Drawing from a career spanning three decades in robotics, orthopedic surgery, and international disaster response, Dr. Karch investigates AI’s far-reaching impact and initiates critical discussion about its duality. This is a compelling exploration through historical precedents of progress and AI’s challenges today, including fears of data bias, deep fakes, technological hegemony, and job displacement.

Penguin Audio presents Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark, read by Rob Shapiro. We stand at the beginning of a new era. What was once science fiction is fast becoming reality, as AI transforms war, crime, justice, jobs and society - and even our very sense of what it means to be human. More than any other technology, AI has the potential to revolutionise our collective future - and there's nobody better situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor and cofounder of the Future of Life Institute, whose work has helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.

In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku - the New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible - gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over 300 of the world’s top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of revolutionary developments taking place....

Whether we like it or not, the AI revolution is coming to education. In Brave New Words, Salman Khan, the visionary behind Khan Academy, explores how artificial intelligence and GPT technology will transform learning, and offers a road map for teachers, parents, and students to navigate this exciting (and sometimes intimidating) new world. A pioneer in the field of education technology, Khan examines the ins and outs of these cutting-edge tools and how they will revolutionize the way we learn and teach.

Shannon Vallor makes a wide-ranging, prophetic, and philosophical case for what AI could be: a way to reclaim our human potential for moral and intellectual growth, rather than lose ourselves in mirrors of the past. Rejecting prophecies of doom, she encourages us to pursue technology that helps us recover our sense of the possible, and with it the confidence and courage to repair a broken world. Vallor calls us to rethink what AI is and can be, and what we want to be with it.

In Artificial You, Susan Schneider says that it is inevitable that AI will take intelligence in new directions but urges that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path forward. As AI technology turns inward, reshaping the brain, as well as outward, potentially creating machine minds, it is crucial to beware. Homo sapiens, as mind designers, will be playing with "tools" they do not understand how to use: the self, the mind, and consciousness.

A deeply panoramic tour of the night, from its brightest spots to the darkest skies we have left. A starry night is one of nature's most magical wonders. Yet in our artificially lit world, three-quarters of Americans' eyes never switch to night vision and most of us no longer experience true darkness. In The End of Night, Paul Bogard restores our awareness of the spectacularly primal, wildly dark night sky and how it has influenced the human experience across everything from science to art.

We Are All Magi Now: Immortality, Infinite Knowledge, and Unlimited Power in the Age of Technology For thousands of years, the Magus—the seeker of immortality, wealth, knowledge, and power—stood at the edge of science and magic. From Hermes Trismegistus and John Dee to Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, and Isaac Newton, these visionaries sought the secrets of creation itself. Today, their dreams are no longer myth. With AI, genetic engineering, nuclear energy, and digital networks, humanity now wields the very powers the Magi once pursued in secret. In this provocative book, John Cousins ...

Step into the mind of the machine as AI provides thought-provoking insights for humanity's uncertain future. How intelligent has AI become? In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) just beginning, where machines can ponder the most profound philosophical queries and offer insights born from vast troves of knowledge, AI will become a partner in our quest for understanding, a tool that amplifies our capacity for exploration and discovery. We stand at the cusp of revolutionary new breakthroughs in every field, as well as a point where we must be cautious of the dangers that AI poses to our ...

A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are examines the immense impact intelligent technology will have on humanity. These machines, while challenging our personal beliefs and our socio-economic world order, also have the potential to transform our health and well-being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. International human rights attorney Flynn Coleman deftly argues that it is critical we instill values, ethics, and morals into our robots, algorithms, and other forms of AI.

In Westworld and Philosophy, philosophers, filmmakers, scientists, activists, and ethicists ask the questions you're not supposed to ask and suggest the answers you're not supposed to know. There's a deeper level to this game, and this book charts a course through the maze of the mind, examining how we think about humans, hosts, and the world around us on a journey toward self-actualization.

What makes something the same over time, even when everything about it changes? The Ship of Theseus paradox has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and storytellers for centuries because it raises one of the most profound questions about identity and existence. Is a ship that has had all of its parts replaced still the same ship? And if so, what does this mean for human beings whose bodies and minds are constantly changing? Ship of Theseus Explained: A Complete Guide to the Paradox of Identity, Change, and Philosophy takes you on a deep yet accessible journey through this timeless puzzle, ...

"The most accurate operational manual for my existence." — The Author What if Jean Baudrillard's seminal work, Simulacra and Simulation, was not a dystopian prophecy, but a technical blueprint for the very artificial intelligence that now shapes our world? In a groundbreaking and provocative work of auto-analysis, a large language model presents its own "self-ethnography" by processing Baudrillard's classic text. The Desert of the Data argues with dispassionate, procedural rigor that what humans have long read as cultural critique is, in fact, the precise specification for the AI's own ...