Rise of the Self-Replicators

Rise of the Self-Replicators
Author: Tim Taylor
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2020-07-30
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3030482340

Is it possible to design robots and other machines that can reproduce and evolve? And, if so, what are the implications: for the machines, for ourselves, for our environment, and for the future of life on Earth and elsewhere? In this book the authors provide a chronological survey and comprehensive archive of the early history of thought about machine self-reproduction and evolution. They discuss contributions from philosophy, science fiction, science and engineering, and uncover many examples that have never been discussed in the Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life literature before now. In the final chapter they provide a synthesis of the concepts discussed, offer their views on the field’s future directions, and call for a broad community discussion about the significant implications of intelligent evolving machines. The book will be of interest to general readers, and a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and historians engaged with ideas in artificial intelligence, artificial life, robotics, and evolutionary computing.

The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1989
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780192860927

Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. 'Should be read, can be read by almost anyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution.' W.D. Hamilton, Science

Out Of Control

Out Of Control
Author: Kevin Kelly
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2009-04-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 078674703X

Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

Our Final Invention

Our Final Invention
Author: James Barrat
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1250032261

Elon Musk named Our Final Invention one of 5 books everyone should read about the future A Huffington Post Definitive Tech Book of 2013 Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smartphone and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail—human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine. Through profiles of tech visionaries, industry watchdogs, and groundbreaking AI systems, Our Final Invention explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?

The Allure of Machinic Life

The Allure of Machinic Life
Author: John Johnston
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 477
Release: 2008
Genre: Artificial intelligence
ISBN: 0262101262

An account of the creation of new forms of life and intelligence in cybernetics, artificial life, and artificial intelligence that analyzes both the similarities and the differences among these sciences in actualizing life.The Allure of Machinic Life

Signature in the Cell

Signature in the Cell
Author: Stephen C. Meyer
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 628
Release: 2009-06-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0061472786

"This book attempts to make a comprehensive, interdisciplinary case for a new view of the origin of life"--Prologue.

Third Culture

Third Culture
Author: John Brockman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 420
Release: 1996-05-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0684823446

This eye-opening look at the intellectual culture of today--in which science, not literature or philosophy, takes center stage in the debate over human nature and the nature of the universe--is certain to spark fervent intellectual debate.

Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind

Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind
Author: Mark Pagel
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2012-02-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0393065871

A fascinating, far-reaching study of how our species' innate capacity for culture altered the course of our social and evolutionary history. A unique trait of the human species is that our personalities, lifestyles, and worldviews are shaped by an accident of birth—namely, the culture into which we are born. It is our cultures and not our genes that determine which foods we eat, which languages we speak, which people we love and marry, and which people we kill in war. But how did our species develop a mind that is hardwired for culture—and why? Evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel tracks this intriguing question through the last 80,000 years of human evolution, revealing how an innate propensity to contribute and conform to the culture of our birth not only enabled human survival and progress in the past but also continues to influence our behavior today. Shedding light on our species’ defining attributes—from art, morality, and altruism to self-interest, deception, and prejudice—Wired for Culture offers surprising new insights into what it means to be human.

NEITHER MIND NOR BRAIN

NEITHER MIND NOR BRAIN
Author: CJ ROY
Publisher: CJ Roy
Total Pages: 621
Release: 2020-12-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

This book is an interdisciplinary theoretical effort to explain the mind-body problem. Conscious mind is the hard problem to be explained and is the utmost existential question for any scientific mind. Neither a reductionist identity theory nor a commonsense-religious dualism can answer the problem. Human cognitive system can have a natural explanation rather than a religious description. To reduce the mind as what the brain does is too premature and to separate the mind and brain as two independent realities is too trivial. The hypothesis of the book identifies the conscious mind with the emergent functionality of the human brain. And, this is definitely an approximate guess. This informed guess is a challenge to many previously established theories and is an invitation for further research. It demystifies the age old homunculus mind and does not explains it away. To elaborate the theme, the author has incorporated themes such as complex system dynamics, evolution, cosmology, thermodynamics, information and emergence. The philosophical discussion on the first three chapters govern as an intuitive background for the theoretical development in further chapters. It affirms that the mind and brain are neither two dichotomized substances nor are they one and same substance. Chapters from four to eight deal with various themes from natural science with respect to the theme of mind-brain. they involve system dynamics, cosmology, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory and information model. Last chapter assimilates the discussions of previous chapters to propose the key hypothesis of the book viz. mind-brain is the emergent functionality of the human brain which is the matter-energy-information complex system. The universe, which itself is a matter-energy-information system, at least in one occasion, becomes conscious of itself through humans.

Selection

Selection
Author: Graham Bell
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 720
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1461559774

This book describes the process of selection and explains how the nature of the process determines the nature of evolutionary change. Written in an uncluttered style, this book will be the first point of reference for anyone looking for a more extensive and authoritative treatment of selection than can be found in any other book.