Internet Histories

Digital Technology, Culture and Society

ISSN: 2470-1475 (Print) 2470-1483 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rint20

Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial

intelligence

Anne Lauscher

To cite this article: Anne Lauscher (2019): Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence,
Internet Histories, DOI: 10.1080/24701475.2019.1565556

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2019.1565556

Published online: 25 Jan 2019.

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INTERNET HISTORIES

BOOK REVIEW

Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence, by Max Tegmark,
Vintage Books: New York, USA, 2018. 384 pp., $17.00 (paperback, reprint edition),
ISBN 9781101970317.

As research on Artificial Intelligence is advancing more and more, many questions related
to the societal perspective on the topic and to ethical implications are currently discussed
in the public as well as in the scientific discourse. Just recently, the German Government
announced that at least a hundred new professorships for artificial intelligence research
will be created between now and the year 2025 (Bundesministerium fu €r Bildung und
Forschung, Referat Ku €nstliche Intelligenz, 2018). In the same strategy paper, the plan of
building German AI observatories that will help to obtain insights into the implications of
this technology and thereby help to build a common European understanding about ethics
and AI is announced. A similar movement as this public debate can be seen in the artificial
intelligence research community itself. Even the Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM), the common organization for computer scientists working in various subfields, just
released an update on its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (Association of
Computing Machinery, 2018), which can be seen as ACM’s response to the growing perva-
siveness of increasingly smarter systems in our society and to its moral implications.
This is the context in which “Life 3.0: Being human in the age of artificial intelligence” is
placed. With his second book, Mark Tegmark aims to enable people to join the public dis-
cussion around future artificial intelligence technologies, which he dubs “the most import-
ant conversation of our time” (Chapter 1). As indicated in the subtitle, the book addresses
the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence technology and outlines key
issues for the future evolution of the human species.
Max Tegmark, himself professor at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, is one of
the leading figures of the future of artificial intelligence movement and founder of the
Future of Life Institute,1 which promotes the so-called beneficial-AI movement. The author
follows and expands with his book on ideas and arguments outlined in Nick Bostrom’s
“Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” (Bostrom, 2014), who depicts the discussion
about artificial intelligence as “philosophy with a deadline.” Tegmark makes the presented
problems easy to access, which makes sense given that it is more than time that the broad
public joins the discussion.
“Do you think a superhuman AI might get created this century?” (p.1)
This introductory question posed directly to the reader is already significant for the style
and the content of the book, which is framed in a tale-like prologue and epilogue, sug-
gesting that our tale as human civilization still needs to be written. Throughout the main
chapters of the book, the author invites the reader to join a journey from the origin of the
universe and the present with the current state-of-the-art in artificial intelligence research
(Chapter 1), through our near future (Chapter 3) and the next 10,000 years (Chapter 5) up
to the next billion years and beyond (Chapter 6). Accordingly, different possible future
scenarios—utopian as well as dystopian—and their related questions are discussed, such
as: How can we ensure AI to be safe? Or: How can we best make use of the resources
we have?
2 BOOK REVIEW

During this journey, Tegmark introduces the reader to fundamental concepts in artificial
intelligence research. For example, Chapter 2 deals with general definitions and key para-
digms, such as computation and learning, and issues related to setting goals for intelligent
agents are presented in Chapter 7. By dedicating many pages to providing proper defini-
tions and objective explanations of well-established as well as new concepts and methods
Tegmark builds up a solid fundament for a meaningful discussion. Even an effort to clarify
common misconceptions with respect to artificial intelligence and its threats is made. The
individual chapters are self-contained and each of them addresses an adequate portion of
the topic including a concise summary which clearly adds to the strong guidance provided
by the author. This is also ensured by many illustrations, tables and cross-references the
reader encounters throughout the book.
Naturally, the ideas presented in the book grow more and more speculative with the
increase of prediction time, but Tegmark still manages to keep a strong argumentative
chain by providing references to scientific studies and by reminding the reader of the non-
negligible possibility that a so-called super-human general artificial intelligence might be
created. The author adds many examples and analogies, outlines scenarios supporting his
claims and even refers to popular works of the science fiction genre. The corresponding
mentions of the TV series Westworld, the book 1984, or the movie Dr. Strangelove (just to
name a few examples), make the content more accessible and facilitate reading Tegmark’s
book. These references are very much enjoyable and they stimulate the reader’s imagin-
ation. Lately, an article published in the ACM magazine positioned itself for the use of sci-
ence-fiction literature when discussing ethics with computer science students (Burton,
Goldsmith, & Mattei, 2018) and Tegmark demonstrates how this can clearly enrich an in-
depth discussion about the future of our society.
Generally, the author examines controversies by taking multiple perspectives and outlin-
ing the pros and cons of each of them, which is very important for truly informing the
reader and enabling the conversation. At the same time, it is valuable that regarding the
very urgent questions, e.g., with regard to artificial intelligence-enabled warfare, like
autonomous weapon systems, or the urgency of robust and trustworthy technologies,
Tegmark clearly takes a position (Chapter 3).
Despite speaking about humanity as a whole when presenting many possible answers
and solutions to the questions and issues discussed, one might also notice strong ethno-
centric traits in his premises, e.g.:
“Everything we love about human civilization is the product of human intelligence, so if
we amplify it with artificial intelligence, we obviously have to potential to make life even
better.” (p. 92)
While I am sure that many people in our western society share the idea of human civil-
ization developing further and further with the progress of technology, one should not for-
get that other societies might have different values and different views on the concept of
progress in general. How our progress affects other societies and how we can deal with
this issue is—unfortunately—not in the scope of the book. This might be related to the
bigger picture that the author focuses on: How do we picture the future of humanity as a
whole? Interestingly, Tegmark expands the perspective even further: Especially when ask-
ing about ethics (Chapter 7) and the nature of meaning and consciousness (Chapter 8),
Tegmark criticizes the idea of human exceptionalism with regards to human-level artificial
and extraterrestrial intelligence:
“If some sophisticated computer programs turn out to be conscious, should it be illegal
to terminate them?” (p. 273)
 BOOK REVIEW 3

This is a shift away from the traditional anthropocentric line of thinking to a more
universal perspective, which contributes to an open-minded discussion on the future of
artificial intelligence.
In the end, Tegmark draws an optimistic vision: If we start planning now, we can shape
tomorrows future.
“Life 3.0.: Life in the age of artificial intelligence” clearly encourages the reader to dig
deeper into the relationship between artificial intelligence technologies and our society.
Max Tegmark invites us to join the discussion and to learn about the most important fun-
damentals that are necessary for having a common understanding of the different paths
that humanity might take. The book is an excellent starting point for further exploring the
topic, especially with the plethora of references to scientific as well as to popular literature
given. But even more, after finishing the book Tegmark does not leave the reader to his or
her own thoughts, but wants us to continue the discussion together, e.g., by linking to a
survey platform on the website of the Future of Life Institute,2 and by asking the us to dis-
cuss “all this” with those around us.
If you are teaching ethics and artificial intelligence course or hosting a workshop related
to the topic or if you are just looking for a comprehensive and sound introduction on the
interplay between our society and the future of artificial intelligence technology, Tegmark’s
work provides an excellent starting point and should be on your reading list.

Notes
1. https://futureoflife.org
2. http://AgeOfAI.org

References
Association of Computing Machinery. (2018). ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Retrieved from
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
Bostrom, N. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, dangers, strategies, Oxford University Press.
Bundesministerium f€ ur Bildung und Forschung, Referat K€ unstliche Intelligenz. (2018, November) Strategie
unstliche Intelligenz der Bundesregierung. Retrieved from https://www.bundesregierung.de/resource/
K€
blob/997532/1550276/9e7fdd5a73cc9ff55f422eab6c75487b/2018-11-15-ki-strategie-data.pdf?download¼1
Burton, E., Goldsmith, J., & Mattei, N. (2018). How to teach computer ethics through science fiction.
Communications of the ACM 61(8), 54–64.

Anne Lauscher
Data and Web Science Group, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
anne@informatik.uni-mannheim.de

ß 2019 Anne Lauscher

https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2019.1565556