John C. Lennox - 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity

This book represents an attempt to address questions of where humanity is going in terms of technological enhancement, bioengineering, and, in particular, artificial intelligence. Will we be able to construct artificial life and superintelligence? Will humans so modify themselves that they become something else entirely, and if so, what implications do advances in AI have on our worldviews in general and on the God question in particular?

I hope that my Orwellian title does not sound too pretentious, firstly because my book is not a dystopian novel and secondly because I am not George Orwell. The title was actually suggested to me by Oxford colleague Professor Peter Atkins when we were on our way to speak on opposite sides in a university debate entitled Can Science Explain Everything? I am indebted to him for the idea and for several vigorous public encounters on issues of science and God.

I am also in considerable debt to a number of people, especially to Dr. Rosalind Picard of the MIT Media Laboratory for her very perceptive comments. Others include Professor David Cranston, Professor Danny Crookes, Professor Jeremy Gibbons, Dr. David Glass, and my ever-helpful research assistant, Dr. Simon Wenham.

My own professional background is in mathematics and the philosophy of science, not in AI, and the reader, especially if an expert in the field, may be puzzled that I appear to be invading their ground. I hasten to explain that my intention lies elsewhere. It seems to me that there are different levels of involvement in and relationship to AI. There are the pioneer thinkers, and then there are those experts who actually write the software used in AI systems. Next, we have the engineers who build the hardware. Then there are those people who understand what AI systems can do who work on developing new applications. Finally, there are writers, some scientifically trained, others not, who are interested in the significance and impact of AI sociologically, economically, ethically.

It is clear that one does not need to know how to build an autonomous vehicle or weapon in order to have an informed view about the ethics of deploying such things. You dont need to know how to program an AI purchase tracker system in order to have a valid opinion about invasion of privacy.

In fact, there is great interest among all levels of involvement in writing for the thoughtful reader at the level of the public understanding of science. It is at this level that I have pitched this book, and I am indebted to all of those people, experts in different ways, who have already written on the topic.