Ronald Bailey Comments on The Age of Em at Cato Tomorrow
Come by at 11 am Tuesday, June 7 to hear author Robin Hanson and me.
Tomorrow, June 7, at 11 a.m., at the Cato Institute in Washingon, D.C., George Mason University economist and transhumanist Robin Hanson will present insights from his new book, The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth. I will be making some comments on the book and joining the discussion with the audience. From my Reason review of the book:
Move over, humans; the emulations are coming and our world is going to get really weird. That's the premise of the George Mason economist Robin Hanson's fascinating new book, The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth, a worthy addition to the growing canon of visionary literature about exponential technological progress. The book tries to discern how the world will change when it becomes possible to upload human minds into computational substrates.
Hanson argues that three supporting technologies are required to achieve this: fast, cheap computers; fast, cheap brain scanners; and detailed and effective models of brain cells. Once all three become available later this century, it will be possible to scan a human brain and emulate it on computer hardware. At that point we'll enter the Age of Emulation—or the Age of Em, for short. And then what?
Come and find out. Cato urges folks to register this morning for the event tomorrow. Go here to register. See you tomorrow.