The handover : how we gave control of our lives to corporations, states and AIs

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Runciman, David

Edition:

First American Edition.

Physical Description:

328 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

General Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary:

An eminent political thinker uses our history with states and corporations--"artificial agents" to which we have granted immense power--to predict how AI will remake society.

Contents:

Introduction. States, corporations, robots -- Superagents -- Groupthink -- A matter of life and death -- Tribes, churches, empires -- The great transformation -- You didn't build that -- Beyond the State -- Who works for whom? -- Conclusion. The second singularity.

Subject Term:

Artificial intelligence -- Social aspects.

Robotics -- Social aspects.

Digital computer simulation

Logic machines

Artificial intelligence -- Forecasting.

Corporations -- Social aspects.

Agent (Philosophy)

Bionics

Cognitive science

Human beings -- Effects of technological innovations on.

Publication Info:

New York, N.Y. : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.

Subject:

Artificial intelligence -- Social aspects.

Robotics -- Social aspects.

Digital computer simulation

Logic machines

Artificial intelligence -- Forecasting.

Corporations -- Social aspects.

Agent (Philosophy)

Bionics

Cognitive science

Human beings -- Effects of technological innovations on.

AI (Artificial intelligence)

Artificial thinking

Electronic brains

Intellectronics

Intelligence, Artificial

Intelligent machines

Machine intelligence

Thinking, Artificial

Digital simulation

Machines, Logic

Business corporations

C corporations

Corporations, Business

Corporations, Public

Limited companies

Publicly held corporations

Publicly traded corporations

Public limited companies

Stock corporations

Subchapter C corporations

Agency (Philosophy)

Agents

Person (Philosophy)

Homo sapiens

Human race

Humanity (Human beings)

Humankind

Humans

Man

Mankind

People

SAILS ISBN:

9781631496943

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Elizabeth Taber Library	320.101 RUN	NEW NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library	320.101 RUNCIMAN	NEW NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mattapoisett Free Public Library	320.101 RUN 2023	NEW NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
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Searching... Norton Public Library	320.101 RUN 2023	NEW NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Seekonk Public Library	320.101 RUNCIMAN	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wareham Free Library	320.101 RUNCIMAN 2023	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Countless books, news reports, and opinion pieces have announced the impending arrival of artificial intelligence, with most claiming that it will upend our world, revolutionizing not just work but society overall. Yet according to political philosopher and historian David Runciman, we've actually been living with a version of AI for 300 years because states and corporations are robots, too. In The Handover, Runciman explains our current situation through the history of these "artificial agents" we created to rescue us from our all-too-human limitations--and demonstrates what this radical new view of our recent past means for our collective future.

From the United States and the United Kingdom to the East India Company, Standard Oil, Facebook, and Alibaba, states and corporations have gradually, and then much more rapidly, taken over the planet. They have helped to conquer poverty and eliminate disease, but also unleashed global wars and environmental degradation. As Runciman demonstrates, states and corporations are the ultimate decision-making machines, defined by their ability to make their own choices and, crucially, to sustain the consequences of what has been chosen. And if the rapid spread of the modern state and corporation has already transformed the conditions of human existence, new AI technology promises the same.

But what happens when AI interacts with other kinds of artificial agents, the inhuman kind represented by states and corporations? Runciman argues that the twenty-first century will be defined by increasingly intense battles between state and corporate power for the fruits of the AI revolution. In the end, it is not our own, human relationship with AI that will determine our future. Rather, humanity's fate will be shaped by the interactions among states, corporations, and thinking machines.

With clarity and verve, The Handover presents a brilliantly original history of the last three centuries and a new understanding of the immense challenges we now face.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Artificial intelligence promises to extend the mechanical and impersonal character of life that states and corporations already impose on society, according to this searching meditation on creeping dehumanization. Cambridge University political scientist Runciman (How Democracy Ends) focuses on the rise from the 17th century onward of modern states and corporations that aggregate ordinary people into grand, machine-like "artificial persons" with superhuman capacities: these complex systems can pursue projects and purposes that outlive humans, and process vast amounts of data and make decisions that would befuddle or stymie individuals. At their best, such systems make life safe, predictable, and comfortable--and at their worst, they start world wars and wreak havoc on the environment. Later chapters survey the upheavals that might stem from advances in AI, including human obsolescence and killer robots. Runciman's approach to these issues is less technological than social and psychological, and gets at a profound truth about hypermodernity: that it's not about the replacement of humans by digital technology, but a submergence of individuality in aggregated, collective systems that's been going on for centuries. Runciman conveys all this in clear-eyed, mordant prose, writing that "in a world of human-like machines, built by machine-like versions of human beings... to fixate on the human would be a mistake, because the merely human will be relatively powerless." The result is a shrewd and stimulating look at society's drive toward an inhuman perfection. (Nov.)

Kirkus Review

A philosophically charged critique of the use of AI in the hands of human actors. As Cambridge political scientist Runciman notes, machines may take over eventually, and perhaps in two phases: the First Singularity, where they do our work for us, and the Second Singularity, where they do our thinking for us and discover that humans are disposable. But note the order of the players in the subtitle: Corporations and states are "both like and unlike AIs and other kinds of artificial agents," and it is unlikely that AIs will be able to achieve world mastery without the guidance of corporations and governments to which we have ceded so much power--and more likely the latter, since corporations as such are likely to evolve or disappear. "It's not a question of us versus them," writes Runciman of those artificial agents. "It's a question of which of them gives us the best chance of still being us." That question turns on many elements, including the nature of capitalism. Will it be a predatory capitalism, a capitalism that sees little growth (the author cites Brazil and Italy as modern examples), or a capitalism that has evolved to value its human actors? That's anyone's guess, but, perhaps comfortingly to some, Runciman argues that the much-touted digital revolution has produced little of lasting value: "Can the iPhone's contribution to the sum of human well-being compete even with the humble washing machine?" Another aspect is whether the state, perhaps the most critical player in the author's trinity, is going to side with humans or with AI. Perhaps comfortingly to all but the bots, he suggests that despite the state's artificial characteristics, it's humans that "are the source of its ability to function." We may have a chance, after all. A thoughtful, learned contribution to the fevered conversation now surrounding AI. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Introduction: States, Corporations, Robots	1
1 Superagents	11
2 Groupthink	39
3 A Matter of Life and Death	70
4 Tribes, Churches, Empires	104
5 The Great Transformation	133
6 You Didn't Build That	163
7 Beyond the State	194
8 Who Works for Whom?	226
Conclusion: The Second Singularity	254
Acknowledgements	275
Notes	276
List of Illustrations	310
Index	312

Available:

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Table of Contents