The Coevolution: The Entwined Futures of Humans and Machines

Edward Ashford Lee (Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley)

The Coevolution: The Entwined Futures of Humans and Machines
Format
Hardback
Publisher
MIT Press Ltd
Country
United States
Published
21 April 2020
Pages
384
ISBN
9780262043939

The Coevolution: The Entwined Futures of Humans and Machines

Edward Ashford Lee (Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley)

Should digital technology be viewed as a new life form, sharing our ecosystem and coevolving with us?Are humans defining technology, or is technology defining humans? In this book, Edward Ashford Lee considers the case that we are less in control of the trajectory of technology than we think. It shapes us as much as we shape it, and it may be more defensible to think of technology as the result of a Darwinian coevolution than the result of top-down intelligent design. Richard Dawkins famously said that a chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg. Is a human a computer’s way of making another computer? To understand this question requires a deep dive into how evolution works, how humans are different from computers, and how the way technology develops resembles the emergence of a new life form on our planet. Lee presents the case for considering digital beings to be living, then offers counterarguments. What we humans do with our minds is more than computation, and what digital systems do-be teleported at the speed of light, backed up, and restored-may never be possible for humans. To believe that we are simply computations, he argues, is a dataist faith and scientifically indefensible. Digital beings depend on humans-and humans depend on digital beings. More likely than a planetary wipe-out of humanity is an ongoing, symbiotic coevolution of culture and technology.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in 3-5 days

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.