The Path to Singularity: How Technology Will Challenge the Future of Humanity
This book presents an incisive summary of the evolution of humanity to its current critical stage and foresight into our technological future from the broad perspective of an astrophysicist. We are developing computers that are more capable than we are, we are peering into our own brains, we have the capacity to direct our own biological evolution, we are altering the ecological balance of our environment, and we are venturing into space. What happens next as we race toward a technological Singularity? The book gives a clear presentation of relevant historical and technical background, illustrations of exponentially-rapid developments, and projects where those developments will lead with vast implications for our economics, democracy, and society in the near future and in a future when Homo sapiens will no longer exist, but our progeny may.
Only by understanding this era of rapid change and its exciting and frightening implications will informed citizens gain the ability to control the technological developments that threaten to overwhelm us even as we are consumed by quotidian cares.
As a guide book to change, this book will give readers a new appreciation of all the technological changes that are occurring around them, if only they pay attention. The book is a primer on how to pay attention that will be relevant long after today’s technological revolutions have faded into the past.
Now is the time to ask the questions that address the technological future of humanity:
When and how will our machines become more competent than us in virtually every human enterprise?
Will computers become conscious?
Will brain/computer interfaces enable mental telepathy between people?
How will advances in artificial intelligence affect our economics and democracy?
Will there be designer babies?
How many people can Earth support?
What are the implications of "solving" the aging problem?
Can we defeat the speed limit of light?
Are we alone in the Universe?
How can we ensure our technology is ethical and unbiased?
How can ordinary citizens influence the development of technology?