"The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of humanity"

A J.P. Morgan 2018 Summer Reading List pick, described as "entertaining and engaging" by The New York Times.

Today we are grappling with big questions around technology: What is possible with artificial intelligence? Should we fear it or welcome it? Will robots take all the jobs, and if they do, would that be a good thing? Can computers achieve consciousness, and if so, do they then acquire rights?"

In "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity," Byron identifies these as fundamentally philosophical, not technical questions, and in doing so, invites the reader to consider these from that vantage point, beginning with the question, “Are humans machines?”

"The Fourth Age" then proceeds to tell the story of technology over the last 100,000 years, focusing on three times in the past when humanity created a technology so profound, says Byron "that it permanently altered our bodies and minds, changing the trajectory of human history in a dramatic way."

As the CEO of Gigaom, one of the world’s most respected technology research companies, Byron has spent the better part of his life exploring the interplay of technology with human history. Byron believes that humanity is about to be so transformed a fourth time, due to artificial intelligence and robots.

"As we progressively 'outsource' our cognitive activity to computers and our physical activity to machines, once again we will be permanently changed, and in this Fourth Age, humanity will embark on the next stage of its evolution," he says.

In captivating and clear language, Byron explores the wide-ranging implications of the Fourth Age as he tackles the questions of artificial general intelligence, employment, automation, creative computers, consciousness, radical life extension, income inequality, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. He eschews simple dogmatic answers to these complex questions and analyzes the basic assumptions that undergird each one. Thus, "The Fourth Age" doesn’t foist the opinions of the author but offers a framework for understanding how technology and human history come together to create the future.

This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to move beyond the warring viewpoints of techno-pundits towards a methodology for answering the questions that we now face. Consider it a guidebook to the future that readers can turn to again and again as we rocket towards this fourth species-changing rendezvous with technology.

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, and Indie Bound, "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity."

"Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Poverty, Hunger, and War"

Gloom-and-doom pessimists have it all wrong. This objective look at the trajectory of history, technology, and civilization shows that we are about to enter a great new epoch of human existence, a golden age like we have never seen; a world free of ignorance, disease, poverty, hunger, and war.

With the art of a storyteller, Byron synthesizes history, technology, and sociology into an exciting, fast-moving narrative showing how new technology has had dramatic effects on humanity in the past. He then looks forward at the technological changes we know are coming–from genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, and many other fields–and explores how they will vastly increase wealth, prolong our lifespans, redefine human rights, and alter the social fabric of the world.

With a rational and researched optimism, Byron sees the future not as a world in a downward spiral, but as destined for progress beyond our imaginations.