Die Zukunft der Menschheit

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. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains.If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to 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 AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?To get closer to an answer to this question, we must make our way through a fascinating landscape of topics and considerations. Read the book and learn about oracles, genies, singletons; about boxing methods, tripwires, and mind crime; about humanity's cosmic endowment and differential technological development; indirect normativity, instrumental convergence, whole brain emulation and technology couplings; Malthusian economics and dystopian evolution; artificial intelligence, and biological cognitive enhancement, and collective intelligence.This profoundly ambitious and original book picks its way carefully through a vast tract of forbiddingly difficult intellectual terrain. Yet the writing is so lucid that it somehow makes it all seem easy. 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.

Was geschieht, wenn es uns eines Tages gelingt, eine Maschine zu entwickeln, die die menschliche Intelligenz auf so gut wie allen Gebieten übertrifft?Klar ist: Eine solche Superintelligenz wäre enorm mächtig und würde uns vor riesige Kontroll- und Steuerungsprobleme stellen. Mehr noch: Vermutlich würde die Zukunft der menschlichen Spezies in ihren Händen liegen, so wie heute die Zukunft der Gorillas von uns abhängt.Nick Bostrom nimmt uns mit auf eine faszinierende Reise in die Welt der Orakel und Genies, der Superrechner und Gehirnsimulationen, aber vor allem in die Labore dieser Welt, in denen derzeit fieberhaft an der Entwicklung einer künstlichen Intelligenz gearbeitet wird. Er skizziert mögliche Szenarien, wie die Geburt der Superintelligenz vonstattengehen könnte, und widmet sich ausführlich den Folgen dieser Revolution.Sie werden global sein und unser wirtschaftliches, soziales und politisches Leben tief greifend verändern. Wir müssen handeln, und zwar kollektiv, bevor der Geist aus der Flasche gelassen ist - also jetzt! Das ist die eminent politische Botschaft dieses so spannenden wie wichtigen Buches.

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. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to 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 AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation? To get closer to an answer to this question, we must make our way through a fascinating landscape of topics and considerations. Read the book and learn about oracles, genies, singletons; about boxing methods, tripwires, and mind crime; about humanity's cosmic endowment and differential technological development; indirect normativity, instrumental convergence, whole brain emulation and technology couplings; Malthusian economics and dystopian evolution; artificial intelligence, and biological cognitive enhancement, and collective intelligence. This profoundly ambitious and original book picks its way carefully through a vast tract of forbiddingly difficult intellectual terrain. Yet the writing is so lucid that it somehow makes it all seem easy. 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.