Super-Human

Two of the world's leading researchers on behavior and decision-making join forces to equip readers with the knowledge, tools, and techniques to live their fullest human li****fe in an age of powerful technology. We have more choice than ever before yet feel less in control. This book is about fighting back—individually and collectively—and becoming the best of ourselves. Drawing on over 1,000 experiments run across more than seventy countries, Halpern and Costa pair rigorous scientific findings with compelling stories, to pull back the curtain on the psychological, systemic, and technological forces that shape our decisions and behavior. More than that, they outline practical ways to make better decisions and put humans back in the driver’s seat with agency to shape—rather than be manipulated by—the forces around us. Super-Human unfolds across three parts: Human. What can each of us do to sharpen our own decision-making and strengthen our agency? Supra-Human. How can we design social networks, markets, and institutions to expand human agency? Super-Human. How can we shape artificial intelligence so that it amplifies human capability and agency rather than replacing or eroding it? Our minds have been shaped by the technologies and institutions of our ancestors, in ways they could not have anticipated. We have an advantage they lacked: we can see the choices coming. Super-Human ultimately asks us to make the biggest choice of all: in an age when machines can “think,” act, and even “feel” on our behalf—what kind of humans do we want to be? Can we become both more super*,* and more human? It's a feature not a fault. Social networks, markets and institutions strongly enable us to achieve things we could never do alone, but also operate as ‘supra-human’ influences on our behavior. Yet individually and collectively we have power to channel and shape them too - more power than we realize Super-human**.** Shaping the technology that will shape us. (Chapter 8) AI could be the ultimate ‘bicycle of the mind’, but it can also become a crutch rather than a coach. It poses opportunity and challenge - to boost our capabilities to superhuman levels, or to become our inadvertent master. Future-human. What kind of humans do we ultimately want to be? (Conclusion) Our minds today have been shaped by the technologies and institutions of our ancestors, in ways they could not have anticipated. We can make choices that will alter our minds and those that follow: what shall we choose?