2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition - by John C Lennox (Paperback)

About the Book

In response to recent popular accounts, scientist and philosopher John Lennox offers a Christian perspective on humanity's future with technological enhancement, bioengineering, and AI. Here is a thought-provoking, controversial, balanced, and engaging account of the problems raised by AI and the atheist conception of what it means to be human.

Book Synopsis

Will technology change what it means to be human?

You don't have to be a computer scientist to have discerning conversations about artificial intelligence and technology. We all wonder where we're headed. Even now, technological innovations and machine learning have a daily impact on our lives, and many of us see good reasons to dread the future. Are we doomed to the surveillance society imagined in George Orwell's 1984?

Mathematician and philosopher John Lennox believes that there are credible responses to the daunting questions that AI poses, and he shows that Christianity has some very serious, sensible, evidence-based things to say about the nature of our quest for superintelligence.

This newly updated and expanded edition of 2084 will introduce you to a kaleidoscope of ideas:

• Key recent developments in technological enhancement, bioengineering, and, in particular, artificial intelligence.
• Consideration of the nature of AI systems with insights from neuroscience.
• The way AI is changing how we communicate, implications for medicine, manufacturing and the military, its use in advertising and automobiles, and education and the future of work.
• How data is used today for surveillance, thought control.
• The rise of virtual reality and the metaverse.
• The transhumanist agenda and longtermism.
• The agreements and disagreements that scientists and experts have about the future of AI.
• The urgent need for regulation and control in light of the development of large language transformers like CHATGPT.
• Key insights from Scripture about the nature of human beings, the soul, our moral sense, our future, and what separates us from machines.

In straight-forward, accessible language, you will get a better understanding of the current capacity of AI, its potential benefits and dangers, the facts and the fiction, as well as possible future implications.

Since the questions posed by AI, daunting as they might be, affect most of us, they demand answers. 2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition has been written to challenge and ignite the curiosity of all readers. Whatever your worldview, Lennox provides clear information and credible answers that will bring you real hope for the future of humanity.

Review Quotes

'A forceful warning from a Christian perspective about the potential risks of an AI dystopia: algorithmic unfairness, existential threat, transhumanist hubris.'-- Jeremy Gibbons, Professor of Computing, University of Oxford

'All that concerns us about the latest developments in AI, including the ethical, anthropological and theological questions the technology raises, are superbly addressed in this updated and expanded edition. John Lennox approaches this subject with his usual thoroughness, clarity and logical development of thought. This is one of the most well informed and helpful books I have seen on this subject.'-- Nigel T. Crook, BSc, PhD, PFHEA, professor of AI and Robotics, Dean of Research and Innovation, Oxford Brookes University, author of Rise of the Moral Machine

'AI, the metaverse, transhumanism--no matter how much you think you know about these things, Lennox's magisterial and exhaustively researched survey of future tech will explode your dataset!'-- Douglas Estes, author of SimChurch and Braving the Future, associate professor of religion, New College of Florida

'Humanity is on the verge of living out Goethe's The Socerer's Apprentice. If ever we needed sages to advise and to warn us if we are not to stumble into 'the abolition of Man, ' it is today. John Lennox is such a sage--experienced, knowledgeable, wise, and with a proven ability to guide us forward.'-- Os Guinness, author of The Magna Carta of Humanity

'If you are planning to read one book on AI, this should be it. If you intend to read many books on AI, this should be the first. John Lennox provides a broad foundation encompassing the basics, dangers, corporate and individual players, large language models vs. machine learning vs. human surveillance, economics, ethics, and how these interface with a biblical worldview. It's all here in delightfully readable format for the layperson or the casual user of AI.'-- James Tour, Professor of Chemistry, NanoEngineering and Computer Science, Rice University

'Lennox offers the most up-to-date information about how AI influences our jobs, our relationships, and our bodies. The updated and expanded edition of 2084 and the AI Revolution is both deep and imminently readable, with important discussion questions for groups at the end of each chapter. It is a book that anyone who cares about the future of humanity should read.'-- Elaine Howard Ecklund, Author of Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us Beyond Fear and Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University

'This revised version of 2084 and the AI Revolution is a real tour de force bringing together with unparallelled clarity, wisdom, and compassion a public understanding of AI technological foundations, ethics, and the AI-human relationship! Lennox, renowned scholar and Christian apologist, is a lighthouse in navigating complex technological advancements with spiritual depth which inspires us to reflect on what it means to be human now and for the future of our grandchildren!'-- Dr Michael Barrett, Vice Dean and Professor of Information Systems and Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business school and Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge

'What does AI I know? What does AI hope for? And what is AI going to do? Sam Altman doesn't have the answer. John Lennox does.'-- Perry Marshall, author, Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design