Mon, Sep 21 · 7:00 PM ICT
Intelligence is what has allowed humans to dominate the globe. But what happens when humanity creates an intelligence far beyond us? In Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies , Author Nick Bostrom, the world's most prominent philosopher of existential risk, analyzes how superintelligence might come about, how it might influence our world, how we might attempt to control it, and a host of other issues related to a phenomenon that may only be a few years away.
The book is over ten years old, but despite predating modern LLMs by several years, Superintelligence continues to be cited regularly in both popular and academic works on AI, as it is related to the philosophy of superintelligence rather than practical aspects of AI development.
Please join us for the September meeting of the Technology and Society book club as we discuss Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom.
NOTE: This is a book club. Anybody is welcome to attend, but you are supposed to read at least some of the book, or have well-developed thoughts related to the book's topic, before attending. I really did not think it was necessary to explicitize that this is a book club in the description, given that I'm using the book cover as the event image and posting the book description from Amazon, but I've had several people show up and act surprised that this is a book club. So yeah, it's a book club. Hope to see you there!
Book Description from Amazon:
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.
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control. 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.
But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. 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. After an utterly engrossing journey that takes us to the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life, we find in Nick Bostrom's work nothing less than a reconceptualization of the essential task of our time.
