The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. --John F. Kennedy
In this book I reveal a vision of the future that will keep you up at night. Researchers all over the world are racing to develop technologies using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some in the scientific community are engaged in the study and development of superintelligence. If they are successful in that endeavor, the outcome would be that AI would become smarter than their creators. We have all seen sci-fi movies that imagine hellish, apocalyptic futures where AI destroys our world. What if it comes on gradually-a drumbeat growing louder every day, until one day the defining roar overtakes everything? What if that day is not very far away?
Join me as I started searching for keys about who and what is behind research and development of these technologies. Was it a cabal, which is a secret political clique or faction? Was it the technocrats, a member of a powerful technical elite or someone who advocates the supremacy of technical experts? Was it the plutocracy, formally known as government by the wealthy? Or was it our government?
Are those around the world who develop technologies that will dramatically affect our destinies truly concerned about life satisfaction, quality of life, or whatever else happiness is termed? Should we simply internalize a life of uncontrolled artificial intelligence and bend to prophet-like futurists' scenarios? Critically, a plausible risk is that unenhanced humans could become superfluous as soon as the 2050s.
James R. Simpson is Affiliate Professor and Senior Fellow, Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service, Washington State University, Professor Emeritus, University of Florida, and Professor Emeritus, Ryukoku University, in Japan. His specialty as an international economist includes training and a career as a scientist in techniques and technologies that fit in robotics and artificial intelligence. He has focused on long-term projections of technological change as part of living and working abroad and has engaged in extensive consulting with organizations such as The World Bank. Publications include over 375 articles, monographs and software, and nine books. One of those, that has many hallmarks of the topics in this book, "Is Today's Food Situation Good for Japan? Warning from an American Researcher," was awarded Best Book of the Year by the Japanese Agricultural Journalists Association.
