Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies Hardcover – 3 Jul 2014

Review

I highly recommend this book (Bill Gates)

Nick Bostrom makes a persuasive case that the future impact of AI is perhaps the most important issue the human race has ever faced. Instead of passively drifting, we need to steer a course. Superintelligence charts the submerged rocks of the future with unprecedented detail. It marks the beginning of a new era (Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkley)

Those disposed to dismiss an 'AI takeover' as science fiction may think again after reading this original and well-argued book (Martin Rees, Past President, Royal Society)

This superb analysis by one of the worlds clearest thinkers tackles one of humanitys greatest challenges: if future superhuman artificial intelligence becomes the biggest event in human history, then how can we ensure that it doesnt become the last? (Max Tegmark, Professor of Physics, MIT)

Terribly important ... groundbreaking... extraordinary sagacity and clarity, enabling him to combine his wide-ranging knowledge over an impressively broad spectrum of disciplines - engineering, natural sciences, medicine, social sciences and philosophy - into a comprehensible whole... If this book gets the reception that it deserves, it may turn out the most important alarm bell since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring from 1962, or ever (Olle Haggstrom, Professor of Mathematical Statistics)

Valuable. The implications of introducing a second intelligent species onto Earth are far-reaching enough to deserve hard thinking (The Economist)

There is no doubting the force of [Bostroms] arguments the problem is a research challenge worthy of the next generations best mathematical talent. Human civilisation is at stake (Financial Times)

His book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies became an improbable bestseller in 2014 (Alex Massie, Times (Scotland))

Ein Text so nüchtern und cool, so angstfrei und dadurch umso erregender, dass danach das, was bisher vor allem Filme durchgespielt haben, auf einmal höchst plausibel erscheint. A text so sober and cool, so fearless and thus all the more exciting that what has until now mostly been acted through in films, all of a sudden appears most plausible afterwards. (translated from German) (Georg Diez, DER SPIEGEL)

Worth reading.... We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes (Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX and Tesla)

A damn hard read (Sunday Telegraph)

I recommend Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom as an excellent book on this topic (Jolyon Brown, Linux Format)

Every intelligent person should read it. (Nils Nilsson, Artificial Intelligence Pioneer, Stanford University)

About the Author

Nick Bostrom is Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University and founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute and of the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology within the Oxford Martin School. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias (Routledge, 2002), Global Catastrophic Risks (ed., OUP, 2008), and Human Enhancement (ed., OUP, 2009). He previously taught at Yale, and he was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the British Academy. Bostrom has a background in physics, computational neuroscience, and mathematical logic as well as philosophy.