Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World by James D. Miller (PDF)

Description

In Ray Kurzweil’s New York Times bestseller The Singularity is Near, the futurist and entrepreneur describes the Singularity, a likely future utterly different than anything we can imagine. The Singularity is triggered by the tremendous growth of human and computing intelligence that is an almost inevitable outcome of Moore’s Law. Since the book’s publication, the coming of the Singularity is now eagerly anticipated by many of the leading thinkers in Silicon Valley, from PayPal mastermind Peter Thiel to Google co-founder Larry Page. The formation of the Singularity University, and the huge popularity of the Singularity website kurzweilai.com, speak to the importance of this intellectual movement.But what about the average person? How will the Singularity affect our daily lives—our jobs, our families, and our wealth?Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World focuses on the implications of a future society faced with an abundance of human and artificial intelligence. James D. Miller, an economics professor and popular speaker on the Singularity, reveals how natural selection has been increasing human intelligence over the past few thousand years and speculates on how intelligence enhancements will shape civilization over the next forty years.Miller considers several possible scenarios in this coming singularity:• A merger of man and machine making society fantastically wealthy and nearly immortal• Competition with billions of cheap AIs drive human wages to almost nothing while making investors rich• Businesses rethink investment decisions to take into account an expected future period of intense creative destruction• Inequality drops worldwide as technologies mitigate the cognitive cost of living in impoverished environments• Drugs designed to fight Alzheimer’s disease and keep soldiers alert on battlefields have the fortunate side effect of increasing all of their users’ IQs, which, in turn, adds a percentage points to worldwide economic growthSingularity Rising offers predictions about the economic implications for a future of widely expanding intelligence and practical career and investment advice on flourishing on the way to the Singularity.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I can not rave enough about this book. I stumbled across it recently during the final months of nearly three years of research in preparation for writing my own book on the subject. (Well, partly on the subject. I plan to have three parts: first covering much of the basic science required to have an informed opinion on the issue, second on the singularity itself, and third investigating the biochemistry of aging and longevity with practical lifestyle options to increase the odds of the middle-aged living to see a possible utopia.) When I saw that it was written by an economist, it really caught my attention. My own background is in science (computer programming and organic chemistry) and most of the material that I have read on the singularity stems from authors with like backgrounds. I assumed (and my assumption was well justified) that an economist would bring a refreshing and unique perspective to the topic. Economists use mathematical models to predict collective human behavior. The author made good use of such insight in presenting various clear and well-thought-out scenarios involving the complex interactions between society and ever-advancing technology. Usually I find myself reading multiple books over a short time span, but this was a rare exception. From the moment I picked it up, it was the only book that I read until I completed it the following day.I am very surprised that this book doesn’t have an average star rating of five! In looking at some of the negative reviews I see some people complaining about speculative content. Well, of course, any book attempting to look even a single day into the future (let alone a few decades) contains speculative content! That doesn’t in any way make it a frivolous endeavor. On the contrary, simply looking at long-standing exponential trends in technology should suggest to most thoughtful people that the time has come to start having these discussions. This book is to some degree an argumentative essay with multiple pathways explored and relative probabilities assessed. No singularitarian can predict exactly when or via exactly what path by which the singularity may come to pass. The merit of a given prediction is determined by the quality of the logic utilized in its construction and the clarity of presentation. In both of these regards, this book was a stunning success! I feel many people that don’t give credence to the possibility of a technological singularity miss a very important point. There are many different paths that can get us there. I will postulate that within 100 years (and probably within SUBSTANTIALLY less time than that) one of two statements will hold valid: 1) The singularity (good or bad) has taken place or 2) society as we have come to know it has collapsed (perhaps resulting in the extinction or near extinction of our species). If both of these statements remain false for the next century it will be truly stunning… a total break of so many long-standing historical trends as to stretch the bounds of reason and probability.I find that my friends that work in the field of computer science are much more amenable to the very real possibility of living to see the singularity. I grew up fascinated by computer technology through the late 70’s and 80’s during the advent of personal computing. I became a mostly self-taught programmer creating my own video games and performing simple experiments with AI by the time I was in middle school. Like so many budding computer scientists, I saw firsthand the wonders of exponential technological advancement as the power of the machine at my fingertips grew in leaps and bounds every few years with my next purchase or upgrade. I also learned that writing even weak AI was monumentally difficult… although almost certainly technologically feasible! At a very young age, long before I had ever heard the term singularity, the logical conclusion that these two facts would likely some day lead to an intelligence explosion seemed inescapable.I also find it unfortunate that singularitarianism is often compared to a religion by some of its critics. The few similarities between the two are wholly superficial. Yes, they both proclaim a possibility of a very long or indefinite life (well, many religions do at least), but the methods by which they come to such conclusions couldn’t be more different.The Singularity Rising does an excellent job of presenting logical arguments in support or against various pathways towards the singularity and the possibility of negative or positive outcomes. Although I am personally very optimistic that the singularity will be of a positive variety, I realize that this is certainly not guaranteed. I had heard some of the concerns before, but the author now has me thinking more deeply about some of the finer details that could cause things to go awry. It was profoundly thought provoking.Perhaps the most unique aspect of the book was a careful analysis of the economic (and societal) effects that different pathways may incur and very specific and practical advice for taking advantage of this foresight. James Miller also makes a very reasoned argument in support of cryonics. I am keeping a close eye on the technology of cryonics. Once we can freeze and unfreeze a brain without destroying the tens of thousands of dendritic connections formed between hundreds of billions of brain cells I will give it serious consideration. Great advances have been made just in the last few years but I don’t think we are quite there yet. Some frog species can freeze solid during the winter and then recover to full health because of a natural sugar-based antifreeze that prevents cellular damage. Does anyone know if there have been any studies to see if the recovered frog retains memory? I have not been able to find any data in regards to this. I’m not sure how practical it would be to even test the memory of a frog, but if this is possible and hasn’t been investigated, I think it would make for a great research project with obvious cryonic implications.With respect to the clarity of the book, I would like to point out that the author has a gift for analogy and certainly draws from his teaching experience as a college professor. (I can appreciate the value of analogy with 15 years of teaching experience myself.) I think someone new to the idea of the singularity will benefit from said analogies. I certainly found the economic analogies very useful as this is a field I have a very limited perspective on. I was debating if I should include a chapter in my proposed book on the possible economic effects that pre-singularity nanotechnology will bestow as we enter an age of abundance. I took great comfort to see that most of my ideas of economic impact were also held by the author.About the only thing missing in the book was a clear background in the technological trends that lay at the heart of the singularity prediction. I am sure that this was purposeful as other books already cover this topic in detail (most notably The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil). Still, perhaps a brief discussion to help set the stage was in order.I plan to buy a few additional copies of this book to distribute to some of my friends with the request that they pass the book on with like instructions. Society needs to realize that steering technological advancement (to the limited extent that we can do so) is of paramount importance. It may in fact be the most important debate in human history!

⭐As has often been the case, I find a book that I really enjoy and then look for another book on the same topic only to be disappointed. In this case, I was looking to read more about the singularity from the economic side after reading Ray Kurzweil’s bestseller “The Singularity is Near.” This book spends very little time discussing “Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World” as the title of the book would indicate. Therefore, it would be a good idea to know what the book is about before purchasing it. The book basically has three parts. Part I Rise of the Robots: This part was somewhat interesting although, at the time, I felt it went off topic as to what a post Singularity world would be like. Most of the discussion was on the chances of an artificial intelligents (AI) taking over the world. He goes very deep into this topic discussing numerous scenarios in great detail on how AI could lead the destruction of humanity. (not what I was expecting) Part II We become smarter without AI: This part really seemed to lose focus. The author starts out talking about IQ. He tries to tie IQ to economic growth and then starts talking about how IQ is genetic. He then talks about how people will use genetic engineering to increase the IQ of their children. He insists that the Chinese will start a program to create a race of super intelligent people. After this he starts discussing how drugs could be used to enhance a person’s intelligence. I really started to wonder if this guy should be on ADD medication. Interestingly enough (and this is no lie) the author started to talk about how he started experimenting with different ADHD medications to increase his IQ. The author continued to discuss several other topics unrelated to a singularity including brain training exercises. At the end of this part of the book, he stated that he had stopped the ADHD medication because he found a special tea that worked just as well. (At this point I thought “Oh No now he is going to really start rambling!) Part III Economic implications: This part really starts to discuss what I thought the whole book was going to be about. Unfortunately, this was probably the worst section of the book. I found his arguments unsubstantiated when discussing the economic impact. He also goes into great length trying to convince you that you should have your head cut off prior to your death and have it frozen. If you did this, he claims that you can be revived latter when medical technology advances. He specifics companies which will do this for you and the cost associated with it. It becomes almost like an advertisement. I was debating as to whether I should give this book 2 or 3 stars. Despite my strong criticism, I did find most of the book rather interesting even if it was not what I thought I would be reading about. If you can get through the rambling and lack of focus of the author, and you find the above topics of interest, it might be worth reading.

⭐Not the most insightful of books about the changes that may happen. Disjointed and somewhat self-centred. I knew more myself before I read the book….

⭐I satisfied the product and shipment.

⭐Not found.

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