LIFE 3.0

Our reviews generally focus on products that will help enable or inform a secure lifestyle rather than more existential threats, but in the case of Life 3.0: Being human in the age of Artificial Intelligence, we made an exception. The potential implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for our future are simply too big too ignore – including many facets of security – and this book leads the reader through them beautifully. Following a slightly disturbing scene-setting prologue imagining an ultra-intelligent AI growing out of control, the author (Max Tegmark) gets straight down to business by defining what he means by Life 3.0. In short, Tegmark classifies life into three broad categories based on its capabilities. Life 1.0 is biological life that can only update its'hardware' (physical form) and'software' (learned abilities) through evolution.