Darwin Among The Machines: The Evolution Of Global Intelligence - Couverture souple

Dyson, George B.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0738200301 ISBN 13 : 9780738200309

Editeur : Basic Books, 1998

Synopsis

Darwin Among the Machines retraces the steps that led us into the digital wilderness, no less wild for being a universe of our own device. Introducing a cast of known and unknown characters, George B. Dyson traces the course of the information revolution, illuminating the lives and work of visionaries-from the time of Thomas Hobbes to the time of John von Neumann-who foresaw the development of artificial intelligence, artificial life, and artificial mind. This deep and elegant book derives both its title and its outlook from Samuel Butlers 1863 essay Darwin Among the Machines. Observing the beginnings of miniaturization, self-reproduction, and telecommunication among machines, Butler predicted that natures intelligence, only temporarily subservient to technology, would resurface to claim our creations as her own. Updating Butlers arguments, Dyson has distilled the historical record to chronicle the origins of digital telecommunications and the evolution of digital computers, beginning long before the time of Darwin and exploring the limits of Darwinian evolution to suggest what lies beyond. Weaving a cohesive narrative among his brilliant predecessors, Dyson constructs a straightforward, convincing, and occasionally frightening view of the evolution of mind in the global network, on a level transcending our own. Dyson concludes that we are in the midst of an experiment that echoes the prehistory of human intelligence and the origins of life. Just as the exchange of coded molecular instructions brought life as we know it to the early earths primordial soup, and as language and mind combined to form the culture in which we live, so, in the digital universe, are computer programs and worldwide networks combining to produce an evolutionary theater in which the distinctions between nature and technology are increasingly obscured. Nature, believes Dyson, is on the side of the machines.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

As timely now as it was when it was first published in 1997, Darwin Among the Machines tells the story of humankind’s long journey into the digital age. Historian of technology George Dyson traces the course of the information revolution, illuminating the lives and work of visionaries—from Thomas Hobbes to John von Neumann—who foresaw the development of artificial intelligence, artificial life, and artificial mind. Weaving a convincing, occasionally frightening narrative of the evolution of the global network, Dyson explores the limits of Darwinian evolution to suggest what lies ahead. Computer programs and worldwide networks are combining to produce an evolutionary theater in which the distinctions between nature and technology are increasingly obscured, he argues. We are living in the midst of an experiment—one that echoes the prehistory of human intelligence and the origins of life. Now in a new paperback edition, this classic work on the emergence of collective mechanical intelligence will resonate for generations to come.

Revue de presse

Nature
An extraordinarily exciting, intriguing and very idiosyncratic book.... An almost perfect example of the effective literary treatment of scientific subjects.”

Los Angeles Times
An original, creative work of intellectual history.”
 
Newsweek
A cogent, succinct history of thinkers and thinking that paved the way, occasionally unwittingly, to today's technology.”

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Basic Books
• Date d'édition: 1998
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0738200301
• ISBN 13: 9780738200309
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible