
Wise Animals
How Technology Has Made Us What We Are
Tom Chatfield(Author)
Picador (Publisher)
Published on 13. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-5290-7976-0 (ISBN)
Description
A Science Book of the Year in The Telegraph
'Timely and wide-ranging . . . ambitious in its scope' - New Scientist
'One of the best books on technology and culture I have read' - Matthew D'Ancona, The New European
'Powerful, profound and completely engrossing' - Michael Bhaskar, co-author of The Coming Wave
In Wise Animals, tech philosopher Tom Chatfield excavates human history to uncover our changing relationship with technology, from the personalized hand axes of our Paleolithic ancestors to the artificial superintelligences of the future.
Drawing on an astonishing breadth of cutting-edge research and historical sources, Chatfield encourages us to rethink everything we thought we knew about technology, and shows how we might deflect the path of technological development towards the long-term interests not only of humanity, but of all life on Earth.
'Tom Chatfield is one of the smartest and most original tech thinkers writing today. Both thought-provoking and startlingly original, Wise Animals is his magnum opus' - Roman Krznaric, author of The Good Ancestor
'Timely and wide-ranging . . . ambitious in its scope' - New Scientist
'One of the best books on technology and culture I have read' - Matthew D'Ancona, The New European
'Powerful, profound and completely engrossing' - Michael Bhaskar, co-author of The Coming Wave
In Wise Animals, tech philosopher Tom Chatfield excavates human history to uncover our changing relationship with technology, from the personalized hand axes of our Paleolithic ancestors to the artificial superintelligences of the future.
Drawing on an astonishing breadth of cutting-edge research and historical sources, Chatfield encourages us to rethink everything we thought we knew about technology, and shows how we might deflect the path of technological development towards the long-term interests not only of humanity, but of all life on Earth.
'Tom Chatfield is one of the smartest and most original tech thinkers writing today. Both thought-provoking and startlingly original, Wise Animals is his magnum opus' - Roman Krznaric, author of The Good Ancestor
Reviews / Votes
Timely and wide-ranging . . . Ambitious in its scope * New Scientist * Quite simply, one of the best books on technology and culture I have read . . . An extraordinary saga that is given coherence by his formidable intellect and beautiful writing style -- Matthew d'Ancona, <i>The New European</i> Combining compelling storytelling with erudite, compassionate and often profound insight about the human condition, this book will transform how you navigate the world. -- Richard Fisher, author of <i>The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time</i> Tom Chatfield is one of the smartest and most original tech thinkers writing today. Both thought-provoking and startlingly original, Wise Animals is his magnum opus. -- Roman Krznaric, author of <i>The Good Ancestor</i> Powerful, profound and completely engrossing, this is a multitudinous meditation on not only technology but also history, culture, ideas, ethics, psychology and, above all, what it means to be human. It brims and fizzes with insight and argument, but never loses touch with that core attribute of its title: wisdom. In an age of intelligent machines, Tom Chatfield has written an essential handbook we will return to again and again -- Michael Bhaskar, co-author of <i>The Coming Wave</i> A timely reflection about historical and technological time that is worthy of your precious hours, as erudite and thoughtful as a reader might expect from a leading philosopher of technology. -- Jonathan Rowson, author of <i>The Moves That Matter</i> Writer and 'tech-philosopher' Chatfield is my go-to thinker on making sense of humanity's relationship with technology. Wise Animals is a highly readable exploration of just that relationship, from the emergence of our species to now. -- Caroline Sanderson, <i>The Bookseller</i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
232 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5290-7976-0 (9781529079760)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2024
Picador
€15.99
Available for download
Person
Dr Tom Chatfield is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. His books exploring technology and digital culture - including Wise Animals - have been published in over thirty languages. He has spoken about AI, tech ethics and the future of authorship at venues ranging from the UK and European Parliaments to Google, Meta, the US National Academy of Sciences and TED Global. He lives in Kent.