The Digital Ape: How to Live (in Peace) with Smart Machines [Paperback]

How are smart machines transforming us, and what should we do about it?The Digital Apetackles the misconceptions out of the conversations about AI and web science while showing us, with clarity and wit, that we have all the tools we need to control our futures.The smart-machines revolution is reshaping our lives and our societies. Here, Sir Nigel Shadbolt, one of the world's leading authorities on artificial intelligence, and Roger Hampson dispel terror, confusion, and misconception. We are not about to be elbowed aside by a rebel army of super-intelligent robots of our own creation. We were using tools before we becameHomo sapiens, and will continue to build and master them, no matter how complicated they become. How we exercise that control--in our private lives, in employment, in politics--and make the best of the wonderful opportunities, will determine our collective future well-being.Chapter by chapter,The Digital Apeoutline how our choices and the use and adaptation of the tools we've created can lead to opportunities for the environment (both built and natural), health, and our security. Shadbolt and Hampson are uniquely well-suited to draw on historical precedent and technical know-how to offer a vision of the future that is exciting, rather than nerve-wracking, to contemplate.Chapter 1 Biology and technologyChapter 2 Our hyper-complex habitatChapter 3 The digital ape emergesChapter 4 Social machinesChapter 5 Artificial and natural intelligenceChapter 6 New companionsChapter 7 Big beastsChapter 8 The challenge of dataChapter 9 Augmented wisdom?Afterword 311Chapter ReferencesBibliographySir Nigel Shadboltis one of the world's foremost computer scientists. He is a leading researcher in artificial intelligence and was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of web science. He is Principal of Jesus College Oxford and a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. He is chairman of the Open Dls+