Ex Machina: AI and the Art of Manipulation
The Lure of Permissionless Innovation
Defining Artificial Intelligence
Transcendence: Welcome to the Singularity
Make-Believe in the Age of the Singularity
The Man in the White Suit: Living in a Material World
There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom
Never Underestimate the Status Quo
Inferno: Immoral Logic in an Age of Genetic Manipulation
The Day After Tomorrow: Riding the Wave of Climate Change
Contact: Living by More than Science Alone
“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
—HAL
Beginnings
I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey on a small black-and-white TV, tucked into a corner of my parents’ living room. It was January 1, 1982, and I was sixteen years old.
I wasn’t a great moviegoer as a teenager. In fact, at that point, I could probably count the number of times I’d been to the cinema on one hand. But I was an avid science fiction reader, and having read Arthur C. Clarke’s short story The Sentinel, I was desperate to see the movie Kubrick and Clarke had crafted from it—so much so, that every ounce of my teenage brattishness was on full display.
My parents had friends around for dinner that evening, and, as usual, the drill was that I was either polite or invisible. But there was a problem. The only TV in the house was in the living room, which was precisely where, at 7:35 that evening, everyone else would be.
I must have been especially awkward that day, because my parents agreed to let me put on my headphones and watch the TV while they entertained. And so, I snuggled into a corner of the sofa, pulled the black-and-white portable up, and became selfishly absorbed in Kubrick’s world of the future.
Goodness knows what our guests were thinking!
2001: A Space Odyssey is a movie that’s rich with metaphors that explore our relationship with technology. So much so that, if I could reach back and talk to my sixteen-year-old self, I’d say, “Take note—this is important.” I’d also add, “Don’t be such a jerk” for good measure. However, despite being awed by the opening sequence, with its primitive apes and inscrutable black monolith,