Our Accelerating Future

Futurology  

In 'Our Accelerating Future', Michael Anissimov describes the most important ideas in futurism and transhumanism: the Singularity, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, and cybernetic enhancement. Within the next century, our world will be turned upside-down by the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence in a technological medium. This concise and clear book serves to introduce the concept to new audiences who are interested in the Singularity and want to know more about this important event which will impact every life on the planet.

In Our Accelerating Future: How Superintelligence, Nanotechnology, and Transhumanism Will Transform the Planet Singularity Summit co-founder and former Singularity Institute futurist Michael Anissimov addresses the Singularity in a different way than Ray Kurzweil does. Anissimov puts emphasis on the smarter-than-human intelligence view of the Singularity rather than the view of the Singularity as a primarily technological process continuous with past technological advancements.

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In that respect it has a view of the Singularity similar to Nick Bostrom's book Superintelligence, which has been praised by Elon Musk, Bill Gates and many others.

"The Singularity is smarter-than-human intelligence. That's it. Nothing else," writes Anissimov. "If we're feeling adventurous, we can put a footnote that says, “and the further intelligence enhancement techniques that smarter intelligence is likely to develop and implement on itself”. I prefer this original, Vingean definition not only because it is the original and most correct definition (as opposed to Ray Kurzweil's later definitions), but because it's easiest to defend."

Our Accelerating Future includes detailed but clearly-stated and concise explorations of artificial intelligence motivations and what factors will determine if advanced AIs are our friends or foes.

One reviewer called the book, "The most fascinating transhumanist book since The Singularity Is Near"

This collection of short articles, describes the most important ideas in futurism and transhumanism: the Singularity, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, and cybernetic enhancement. Within the next century, our world will be turned upside-down by the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence in a technological medium. This concise and clear book serves to introduce the concept to new audiences who are interested in the Singularity and want to know more about this important event which will impact every life on the planet.

"Michael is one of the most intelligent transhumanists."

As Anissimov explores, transhumanism and cybernetic enhancement will be the most important application of nanotechnology and the most important sequence of events on the road to the Singularity. This book examines issues such as: which will reach superintelligence first, AIs or enhanced humans? What will the most exciting enhancements be? What are the top transhumanist technologies?

Anissimov is a futurist living in San Francisco, California. He has worked for the Singularity Institute, where he co-founded and co-organized the Singularity Summit conference series before it was acquired by Singularity University for an undisclosed sum in 2012. He has also worked for Kurzweil Technologies and cutting-edge startups in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. According to Aubrey de Grey, "Michael is one of the most intelligent transhumanists."

Chapter previews of Our Accelerating Future are available here.

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