Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World

by James D. Miller

In Ray Kurzweil’s New York Times bestseller The Singularity is Near, the futurist and entrepreneur describes the Singularity, a likely future utterly different than anything we can imagine. The Singularity is triggered by the tremendous growth of human and computing intelligence that is an almost inevitable outcome of Moore's Law. Since the book's publication, the coming of the Singularity is now eagerly anticipated by many of the leading thinkers in Silicon Valley, from PayPal mastermind Peter Thiel to Google co-founder Larry Page. The formation of the Singularity University, and the huge popularity of the Singularity website kurzweilai.com, speak to the importance of this intellectual movement.

But what about the average person? How will the Singularity affect our daily lives—our jobs, our families, and our wealth?

Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World focuses on the implications of a future society faced with an abundance of human and artificial intelligence. James D. Miller, an economics professor and popular speaker on the Singularity, reveals how natural selection has been increasing human intelligence over the past few thousand years and speculates on how intelligence enhancements will shape civilization over the next forty years.

Miller considers several possible scenarios in this coming singularity:
-A merger of man and machine making society fantastically wealthy and nearly immortal
-Competition with billions of cheap AIs drive human wages to almost nothing while making investors rich
-Businesses rethink investment decisions to take into account an expected future period of intense creative destruction
-Inequality drops worldwide as technologies mitigate the cognitive cost of living in impoverished environments
-Drugs designed to fight Alzheimer's disease and keep soldiers alert on battlefields have the fortunate side effect of increasing all of their users’ IQs, which, in turn, adds a percentage points to worldwide economic growth

Singularity Rising offers predictions about the economic implications for a future of widely expanding intelligence and practical career and investment advice on flourishing on the way to the Singularity.

Genres: Science, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Nonfiction, Futurism, Singularity, Philosophy

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2012

Reviews

[Gwern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.

[GONZA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strage book, most of the times I could have sworn that the author was kidding me, but some things he said were pretty smart in my opinion, probably because I've never thought about them that way.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND BENBELLA BOOKS FOR THE PREVIEW

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting read. The potentials inherent in strong AI run from miraculously positive to utterly destructive. Even weaker forms of AI, such as the machine learning that enables Google and Amazon to appear to read your mind, can have seriously enabling or disruptive impacts. As with other areas of scientific and technological development, it would be wise to inform ourselves of the key opportunities, risks, and probabilities and to use that knowledge to make (or pressure lawmakers to make) good governance decisions.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

At some point I need to go back and finish this, more so I can write the rebuttal it deserves than for enjoyment. Miller keeps making divide by zero errors and deriving absurd consequences from them. Technological breakthroughs don't change the world in an instant. They need resources applied and have logistical friction as they spread. There is a lot of good material, but you need a good understanding of the issues to filter the good from bad.

Not recommended for anyone new to the subject.

[Bernd · Rating 1 out of 5]

In its naive optimism and lack of genuine critical thinking around moral consequences this work is even more painful to absorb than Kurzweil's original on the topic. Superficial & unqualified judgement along racist, sexist, and nationalist lines further dampens any potential merit of considering the topic he tries to evangelize. To round out the quality of what seems to be the author's first literary foray, a healthy dose of conceit and self-centeredness is added to the narrative.

[Omran · Rating 5 out of 5]

for me it's the best book I ever read about the singularity , easy to understand and rich in information .

[Philip Chaston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could do with some of the smart drugs the book promotes

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terribly written with very little thought provoking content.

[Roberto Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Very interesting.

[Ninja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Covers a lot of the issues from the next few decades.