Wise Animals

Today was publication day for my new book about the deep past and future of technology, Wise Animals.

I'll be doing plenty of writing, speaking and broadcasting around its themes this year: from Scottish book festivals to the Munich festival of the future; from conference on emergency medicine to consultations on the future of AI; from podcasts and essays to excitable newsletters.

If you think I might be able to do something for you, do drop me a line. And if you want to know more about some of the themes the book explores, read on...

What's it about? Lots of things, of course. But above all, it's aimed as a corrective to a dozen delusions that I think stand between us and a rich, rigorous engagement with technology in the 21st century. In compact form, here they are:

1. The delusion of inevitability. Neither the past nor the future can be understood as an inexorable progression of innovation-driven developments. The control we have is imperfect, communal and incremental. But, for better and for worse, the future lies in our hands; while assuming that technology will dictate what happens next shirks a collective responsibility of immense significance.

2. The delusion of mastery. Our species is uniquely capable, burdened and brilliant. But we are not the masters of the forces governing life on Earth; and we can only bend this planet's systems to our will so far before they buckle. There is enough truth in this delusion to make it seductive. In the larger scheme of things, however, it is both profoundly self-deceived and a recipe for catastrophe.

3. The delusion of brutality. The belief that conflict and competition are the defining features of our own and our creations’ evolution can't survive historical scrutiny. Uniquely adaptable, vulnerable and co-dependent, our supreme survival strategies are those of cooperation, nurture, teaching and learning. Without this foundation, all else fails.

4. The delusion that technologies are optional. Technology predates the very existence of our species, and our mental and social lives are inextricably entwined with the realm of artefacts, information and ideas. There is no such thing as a human existence independent of technology, and there never has been: what's "natural" for us is the constant, collective reinvention of what it is to be human.

5. The delusion of literal-mindedness. We can never access the external world impartially—but are, rather, in the constant collective business of updating the "controlled hallucination" of consciousness. Technology is integrally implicated in every aspect of this sense-making, from its moulding of memories and attention to the fundamentals of language, learning and interpersonal relationships. And this makes the values and assumptions embedded in it of pressing importance.

6. The delusion of comprehension. Human minds love to resolve events into tidy tales of cause and effect. But this ignores the best lessons time and fate might teach. We need to attend more closely to complexity, uncertainty and unintended consequences to grasp today's most significant risks and opportunities - and to see beyond the ensnaring limitations of confirmation and survivorship bias.

7. The delusion of neutrality. There are no neutral tools. The human-made world is suffused with wants and values; with inclinations and assumptions that reshape us even as we shape them. The delusion of neutrality is a way of shirking the ethical import of this fact: that what technology "wants" us to do is every bit as significant as what we might wish to do, given the chance.

8. The delusion of magical thinking. Human society is not a problem awaiting technological solutions, nor innovation a form of religion. No technical achievement can grant us either purpose or salvation. No matter how much we - or those in the business of selling tech solutions - might wish, no magical product will ever erase all problems and wrongs.

9. The anthropomorphic delusion. Human minds are as misleading a model for understanding machines as machines are for understanding ourselves. As AIs become more brilliant, it’s only by refusing to project our own fears, intentions and models of reality onto them that we can hope to make the most of the potentials that lie on both sides.

10. The delusion of machine perfection. Neither perfect machines nor perfectly reasonable decisions can exist in the real world; and denigrating human capabilities in comparison to fantasies of tech's perfectibility is a sure way of stunting our dignity, autonomy and potential.

11. The delusion of divine data. Scale may be transformative, but there is no point at which sufficient quantities of data will ever become self-interpreting or free from presumption. Similarly, there is no such thing as a perfectly impartial or unbiased dataset. Human participation, scrutiny and oversight of key societal processes will always be prerequisites for solidarity and justice.

12. The delusion of perpetual progress. We have immemorially enhanced our bodies and minds through technology, and will surely continue to do so. But this will not and cannot move us beyond conflict, fallibility and self-deception, nor transform us into undying machines...

...rather, the best measures of our success will always lie in those inheritances we leave our descendants: the systems that sustain life in all its forms; the affordances of our cultural and technological heritage; the capacities for care, self-correction and resilience within these.

If you're interested in finding out more, please do take a look at the book. Feel free to comment, share, dispute and disagree below. And thank you for reading.