a guided tour of AI's future paths, by scientist and best-selling author David Brin
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beyond doom and hype
Giddy optimists foretell our coming transcendence to a golden age of AI-managed abundance.
Glowering doomers predict that vast cyber-minds — cold and unsympathetic — will crush old style humanity. Or render us irrelevant.
Meanwhile, geniuses fostering the artificial intelligence boom clutch clichés rooted in our wretched human past, or else cheap sci-fi...
...as critics demand state regulation, ‘kill switches,’ or coercive programming. Or to seek a soft-landing with AI by ‘teaching ethical values’ to synthetic minds who see innumerable counterexamples in their training sets, then collude and manipulate for advantage, when given 'agency.'
While some ‘shoulds’ have merit, all ignore a core point — that this has happened before. Sudden expansions of what people see, know and comprehend. Each of those earlier, disruptive episodes — from writing to printing, radio, mass media and the Internet — teach important lessons, if we heed them.
The lessons and tools we’ll need, in order to achieve a ‘soft-landing’ with Artificial Intelligence, already exist in modern society — in a myriad ways that modern citizens right now interact with each other, and in how we raise our biological children. Tools that we used to build a gradually improving, enlightenment civilization...
...tools that are ignored right now, because the inventors of these new minds — while brilliant — can’t be bothered with contexts. The context of nature and evolution. The context of human history. The context of past technological revolutions. Or existing law. Or smart, speculative tales told across generations.
Heed those contexts and solutions to many AI quandaries arise. Ways to face a danger-fraught era, offering positive outcomes to all.
But first, shall we stop proclaiming an endless ‘shoulds’? And — forsaking hoary clichés — turn back to examine what already works?
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table of contents
1. Intro: Soon Humanity Won't Be Alone
2. Doomed! Are We Already Obsolete?
3. Nature's Old Ecosystem ... and New Ones We're Building
4. Paths to Artificial Intelligence
5. More Missing Contexts ... Nature, Evolution, History, Societies
6. The Format Dilemma in AI --- Clichés dominate all AI inventors
7. Altruistic Horizons ... and the Problem of Empathy
8. Human Augmentation ... With or Without AI?
9. The Propulsive Dream of Immortality
10. Consciousness ... the Daunting Black Box
11. Destinies & Singularities ... and Nightmares
12. Disputation ... Our Abrasive Secret Sauce
Some Lagniappes ... We Get to Come Along! (in fiction, at least)
a brief intro to science fiction author DAVID BRIN
To learn more, visit his books page, or see his "about me" page or detailed biography.
novels
David Brin's science fiction novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages. They range from bold and prophetic explorations of our near-future to Brin's Uplift series, envisioning galactic issues of sapience and destiny (and star-faring dolphins!). Learn More
shorter fiction
Short stories and novellas have different rhythms and artistic flavor, and Brin's short stories and novellas, several of which earned Hugo and other awards, exploit that difference to explore a wider range of real and vividly speculative ideas. Many have been selected for anthologies and reprints, and most have been published in anthology form. Learn More
Contrary Brin blog
Since 2004, David Brin has maintained a blog about science, technology, science fiction, books, and the future — themes his science fiction and nonfiction writings continue to explore. Learn More
social media influencer
Who could've predicted that social media — indeed, all of our online society — would play such an important role in the 21st Century — restoring the voices of advisors and influencers! Lively and intelligent comments spill over onto Brin's social media pages. Learn More
scientist
David Brin's Ph.D in Physics from the University of California at San Diego (the lab of nobelist Hannes Alfven) followed a masters in optics and an undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Caltech. Every science show that depicts a comet now portrays the model developed in Brin's PhD research. Learn More
transparency expert
Brin's non-fiction book, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy?, continues to receive acclaim for its accuracy in predicting 21st Century concerns about online security, secrecy, accountability and privacy. Learn More
speaker & consultant
Brin speaks plausibly and entertainingly about trends in technology and society to audiences willing to confront the challenges that our rambunctious civilization will face in the decades ahead. He also talks about the field of science fiction, especially in relation to his own novels and stories. To date he has presented at more than 200 meetings, conferences, corporate retreats and other gatherings.Learn More
future/tech advisor
Brin advises corporations and governmental and private defense- and security-related agencies about information-age issues, scientific trends, future social and political trends, and education. Urban Developer Magazine named him one of four World's Best Futurists, and he was cited as one of the top 10 writers the AI elite follow. Past consultations include Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and many others. Learn More
