Ronald Bailey Wonders If Artificial Intelligence Will Destroy Humanity

In Frank Herbert’s Dune books, humanity
has long banned the creation of “thinking machines.” Ten thousand
years earlier, their ancestors destroyed all such computers in a
movement called the Butlerian Jihad, because they felt the machines
controlled them. Human computers called Mentats serve as a
substitute for the outlawed technology. The penalty for violating
the Orange Catholic Bible’s commandment “Thou shalt not
make a machine in the likeness of a human mind” was immediate
death. Should humanity sanction the creation of intelligent
machines? That’s the pressing issue at the heart of the Oxford
philosopher Nick Bostrom’s fascinating new book,
Superintelligence. In his review, Reason Science
Correspondent Ronald Bailey concludes that Bostrom makes a strong
case that working to ensure the survival of humanity after the
coming intelligence explosion is “the essential task of our
age.”

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