The Cybernetic Society

"An optimistic, shimmering image of a world where AI operates in service to humankind" (Kirkus) argues that both the major risk and opportunity of AI is that humans and computers have fused, giving AI the ability to shape the future of human affairs Artificial intelligence is inescapable: at home, at work, in politics, and on the battlefield. In The Cybernetic Society, technologist Amir Husain argues that AI hasn’t simply encroached on everything we do. It has become part of us, and we, it. Humans and intelligent machines, he argues, are enmeshed in a symbiotic hybrid that he calls a “cybernetic society.” Husain describes a present and future where AI isn’t a tool of humans but our equal partner, one where they can realize their own visions of the world. There is great potential and danger: Saudi Arabia’s Neom—a “cognitive city” being built in inhospitable desert—shows how this symbiosis can make life possible where otherwise, it is not. But the profusion of intelligent military drones is making mass destruction possible where otherwise, it is not. As engrossing as it is urgent, The Cybernetic Society offers a new understanding of this revolutionary fusion of machine and mankind, and its profound implications for all our futures. The path ahead is challenging. But Husain shows why we can live harmoniously with our creations.