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Annihilation from Within: The Ultimate Threat to Nations

July 16, 2010

Annihilation from Within: The Ultimate Threat to Nations

Author:
Fred Charles Iklé
Publisher:
Columbia University Press (2006)

Powells | In this eloquent and impassioned book, defense expert Fred Iklé predicts a revolution in national security that few strategists have grasped; fewer still are mindful of its historic roots. We are preoccupied with suicide bombers, jihadist terrorists, and rogue nations producing nuclear weapons, but these menaces are merely distant thunder that foretells the gathering storm.

It is the dark side of technological progress that explains this… read more

Topics: Social/Ethical/Legal | Survival/Defense

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Apocalypse When?: Calculating How Long The Human Race Will Survive

October 29, 2010

Apocalypse When?

Author:
Willard Wells
Publisher:
Praxis (2009)

Amazon | This book will be a key trailblazer in a new and upcoming field. The author’s predictive approach relies on simple and intuitive probability formulations that will appeal to readers with a modest knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, and statistics. Wells’s carefully erected theory stands on a sure footing and thus should serve as the basis of many rational predictions of survival in the face of not only natural… read more

Topics: Singularity/Futures | Social/Ethical/Legal | Survival/Defense

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Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality

July 8, 2010

Apocalyptic AI cover

Author:
Robert Geraci
Publisher:
Oxford University Press (2010)

Amazon | Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into machines or cyberspace and live forever, is a surprisingly wide-spread and influential idea, affecting everything from the world view of online gamers to government research funding and philosophical thought. In Apocalyptic AI, Robert Geraci offers the first serious account of this “cyber-theology” and the people who promote it.

Drawing on interviews with roboticists… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Singularity/Futures | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Are We Getting Smarter?: Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century

October 29, 2012

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Author:
James R. Flynn
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press (2012)

The ‘Flynn effect’ is a surprising finding, identified by James R. Flynn, that IQ test scores have significantly increased from one generation to the next over the past century. Flynn now brings us an exciting new book which aims to make sense of this rise in IQ scores and considers what this tells us about our intelligence, our minds and society. Are We Getting Smarter? features fascinating new material… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Human Enhancement | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Are We Spiritual Machines? Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I.

June 8, 2001

Are We Spiritual Machines

Author:
Jay W. Richards, Ray Kurzweil, George Gilder
Publisher:
Discovery Institute (2001)

Computers are becoming more powerful at an ever-increasing rate, but will they ever become conscious? Artificial intelligence guru Ray Kurzweil thinks so and explains how we will “download” our software (our minds) and “upgrade” our hardware (our bodies) to become immortal — before the dawn of the 22nd century.

In this debate with his critics, including several Discovery Institute fellows, Kurzweil defends his views and sets the stage… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Armageddon Science: The Science of Mass Destruction

November 29, 2010

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Author:
Brian Clegg
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press (2010)

Publisher’s Weekly | Clegg (Before the Big Bang) explores how runaway science and other disasters might destroy humanity. He begins with the much discussed but highly speculative concerns over the operation of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The collider is designed to recreate energies equal to those existing at the time of the big bang, which some theorists say might create a chain reaction that would dissolve the… read more

Topics: Environment/Climate | Singularity/Futures | Social Networking/Web/Education | Survival/Defense

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Artificial Culture: Identity, Technology, and Bodies

March 22, 2012

ArtificialCulture_Cover1

Author:
Tama Leaver
Publisher:
Routledge (2011)

Amazon | Artificial Culture is an examination of the articulation, construction, and representation of “the artificial” in contemporary popular cultural texts, especially science fiction films and novels. The book argues that today we live in an artificial culture due to the deep and inextricable relationship between people, our bodies, and technology at large. While the artificial is often imagined as outside of the natural order and thus also beyond… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Entertainment/New Media | Singularity/Futures

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As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth

November 6, 2012

As the Future Catches You

Author:
Juan Enriquez
Publisher:
Crown Business (2005)

If you think the world has changed dramatically in the last five years, you haven’t seen anything yet.

You will never look at the world in the same way after reading As the Future Catches You. Juan Enriquez puts you face to face with unprecedented political, ethical, economic, and financial issues, dramatically demonstrating the cascading impact of the genetic, digital, and knowledge revolutions on all our lives.

Genetics… read more

Topics: Biotech | Singularity/Futures | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Atlas Shrugged

April 21, 2011

Atlas Shrugged

Author:
Ayn Rand
Publisher:
Plume (1999)

Amazon | Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was Ayn Rand’s greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatizes her unique philosophy through an intellectual mystery story that integrates ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex.

Set in a near-future U.S.A. whose economy is collapsing as a result of the mysterious disappearance of leading innovators and industrialists, this novel presents an astounding panorama… read more

Topics: Social/Ethical/Legal

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Augmenting Cognition

May 21, 2012

augmentingcognition

Author:
Idan Segev, Henry Markram
Publisher:
EFPL Press (2011)

Amazon | The Human brain is only 100,000 years old. Yet, this newly evolved organ endows us with unique creative capabilities beyond all other living creatures, including the gift to understand itself. As our very survival and success in life depends on utilizing our brain’s power, intense efforts have begun worldwide to understand the brain, reverse-engineer it and even augment its capacity. Towards this end we harness every trick in… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World

July 9, 2012

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Author:
Christopher Steiner
Publisher:
Portfolio Hardcover (2012)

The routing story of the last gasp of human agency and how today’s best and brightest minds are endeavoring to put an end to it.

It used to be that to diagnose an illness, interpret legal documents, analyze foreign policy, or write a newspaper article you needed a human being with specific skills — and maybe an advanced degree or two. These days, high-level tasks are… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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Avogadro Corp

March 19, 2012

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Author:
William Hertling
Publisher:
Liquididea Press (2011)

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears is a techno-thriller about the accidental creation of an artificial intelligence.

David Ryan is the designer of ELOPe, an email language optimization program, that if successful, will make his career. But when the project is suddenly in danger of being canceled, David embeds a hidden directive in the software accidentally creating a runaway artificial intelligence.

David and… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Singularity/Futures

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Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers

April 4, 2011

Be Different book cover

Author:
John Elder Robison
Publisher:
Crown Archetype (2011)

Amazon | “I believe those of us with Asperger’s are here for a reason, and we have much to offer. This book will help you bring out those gifts.”

In his bestselling memoir, Look Me in the Eye, John Elder Robison described growing up with Asperger’s syndrome at a time when the diagnosis didn’t exist. He was intelligent but socially isolated; his talents won him jobs with… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine

April 9, 2009

Beyond AI

Author:
J. Storrs Hall

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now advancing at such a rapid clip that it has the potential to transform our world in ways both exciting and disturbing. Computers have already been designed that are capable of driving cars, playing soccer, and finding and organizing information on the Web in ways that no human could. With each new gain in processing power, will scientists soon be able to create supercomputers that… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines — and How It Will Change Our Lives

February 16, 2011

Beyond Boundaries cover

Author:
Miguel Nicolelis
Publisher:
Times Books (2011)

Amazon | A pioneering neuroscientist shows how the long-sought merger of brains with machines is about to become a paradigm-shifting reality.

Imagine living in a world where people use their computers, drive their cars, and communicate with one another simply by thinking. In this stunning and inspiring work, Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis shares his revolutionary insights into how the brain creates thought and the human sense… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Computers/Infotech/UI | Electronics | Human Enhancement | Internet/Telecom | Singularity/Futures | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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