This week, 
I’m a little late on the book of the week, which essentially makes it a book of the weekend, but for those who are interested in the subject of the Singularity, Dr. Miller, my past and future debate opponent, has made the audio introduction to his book on the technofuture, Singularity Rising, available for listening. 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. Sadly, no word on okapis.