The Handover
How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs
Published on 7. September 2023
978-1-78283-621-6 (ISBN)
Description
'The Singularity' is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before.
A few hundred years ago, humans started building the robots that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful artificial entities, with capacities that go far beyond what any individual can do, and which, unlike us, need never die.
They have made us richer, safer and healthier than would have seemed possible even a few generations ago - and they may yet destroy us. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.
A few hundred years ago, humans started building the robots that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful artificial entities, with capacities that go far beyond what any individual can do, and which, unlike us, need never die.
They have made us richer, safer and healthier than would have seemed possible even a few generations ago - and they may yet destroy us. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.
Reviews / Votes
Persuasive ... the ever-erudite host of the terrific Talking Politics podcast ... ranges far and wide, from hunter gatherers to Elon Musk, from the wisdom of juries to the (terrifying) implications of autonomous weapons systems -- Tim Adams * Guardian * Runciman's erudition is formidable ... a wide-ranging history of the modern state and an exploration of how AI technology may change the world [from] one of our leading public intellectuals -- Jason Cowley * Sunday Times * Compelling ... David Runciman makes salutary arguments [about] the most urgent problem we face -- Blake Smith * Literary Review * Quirky, meditational, disturbing ... original thinking -- Sherelle Jacobs * Telegraph * Praise for David Runciman: 'A clear and forceful writer * Financial Times * Runciman's flair for turning a pithy and pungent phrase is one of the things to admire about his writing ... That and [his] cogency, subtlety and style * Observer * Refreshingly free of received and rehearsed wisdoms, Runciman doesn't tiptoe around sacred cows and invites us to take part in that most adult way of thinking: to examine contradictory ideas in tandem and ponder what the dissonance amounts to * Australian *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Reflowable
Illustrations
B&W photos throughout
File size
1,60 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-78283-621-6 (9781782836216)
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
Book
09/2024
Profile Books Ltd
€14.00
Available immediately
Book
09/2023
Profile Books Ltd
€25.00
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the former Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies. His previous books for Profile include Confronting Leviathan, Where Power Stops and How Democracy Ends. He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books and hosted the widely acclaimed weekly podcast Talking Politics.
