Will it be possible to construct a seed Artificial Intelligence, to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation? This profoundly ambitious and original book breaks down a vast track of difficult intellectual terrain. But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans than on the species itself, so would the fate of humankind depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. Possible minds… on LIFE 3.A New York Times bestseller Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Alien Life?.Being You: Are we ready to understand consciousness?.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.

Nick Bostrom describes in a very clear and convincing way how a superintelligence may develop out of research in AI and neurosciences, using a number of different paths that may include whole brain emulation, strong artificial intelligence or highly connected communities of human brains. After that, such a machine can invent all sorts of new technologies, including the ones related with AI. Once an AI system with human-level intelligence comes into existence, it will certainly be able to improve itself rapidly past that level.Īs Irving John Good, a statistician that worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, pointed out, a smarter than human machine is probably the last invention man will ever need to create. However, as Nick Bostrom points out in this book, there is no reason to believe that, once developed, strong AI systems would remain approximately as intelligent as humans.

This is a tall order and it may yet take many years until we reach that point. So far, researchers have concentrated their efforts on the development of artificial intelligence systems that are as intelligent as humans, the so called strong AI. A very interesting new book by Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence, addresses the questions that will be raised by the appearance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems that are vastly smarter than humans.

Superintelligence book