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As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is
poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers
fascinating insight into AI, robotics, and their extraordinary
implications for our species. "If you only read just one book about
the AI revolution, make it this one" (John Mackey, cofounder and
CEO, Whole Foods Market). In The Fourth Age, Byron Reese makes the
case that technology has reshaped humanity just three times in
history: 100,000 years ago, we harnessed fire, which led to
language; 10,000 years ago, we developed agriculture, which led to
cities and warfare; 5,000 years ago, we invented the wheel and
writing, which lead to the nation state. We are now on the doorstep
of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and
robotics. "Timely, highly informative, and certainly optimistic"
(Booklist), The Fourth Age provides an essential background on how
we got to this point, and how-rather than what-we should think
about the topics we'll soon all be facing: machine consciousness,
automation, changes in employment, creative computers, radical life
extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare,
superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. By
asking questions like "Are you a machine?" and "Could a computer
feel anything?", Reese leads you through a discussion along the
cutting edge in robotics and AI, and provides a framework by which
we can all understand, discuss, and act on the issues of the Fourth
Age and how they'll transform humanity.
Look around. Clearly, we humans are radically different from the
other creatures on this planet. But why? Where are the Bronze Age
beavers? The Iron Age iguanas? In Stories, Dice, and Rocks That
Think, Byron Reese argues that we owe our special status to our
ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the
perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in.
Envisioning human history as the development of a societal
superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape
enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, and
predict - and eventually master - the future. Thoughtful, witty,
and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an
intelligent species in three acts: Act I: Ancient humans undergo
"the awakening," developing the cognitive ability to mentally
time-travel using language Act II: In 17th century France, the
mathematical framework known as 'probability theory' is born - a
science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern
world Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip,
humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more
precision, overcoming the limits of our brains A fresh new look at
the history and destiny of humanity, readers will come away from
Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of
what they are-not just another animal, but a creature with a
mastery of time itself.
Could humans unknowingly be a part of a larger superorganism—one
with its own motivations and goals, one that is alive, and
conscious, and has the power to shape the future of our species?
This is the fascinating theory from author and futurist Byron
Reese, who calls this human superorganism “Agora.” In We Are
Agora, Reese starts by asking the question, “What is life and how
did it form?” From there, he looks at how multicellular life came
about, how consciousness emerged, and looks at other superorganisms
in nature to figure out how they form. Then, Reese poses eight big
questions based on the Agora theory, including: If ants have
colonies, bees have hives, and we have our bodies, how does Agora
manifest itself? Does it have a body? Can Agora explain things that
happen that are both under our control and near universally
undesirable, such as war? How can Agora theory explain
long-term progress we’ve made in the world? In this unique and
ambitious work that spans all of human history and looks boldly
into its future, Reese melds science and history to look at the
human species from a fresh new perspective. Told with his
characteristic wit and compulsive readability, We Are Agora will
give readers a better understanding of where we’ve been, where
we’re going, and how our fates are intertwined.
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