Tip for Reading List: Will AI partner with humans?

Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence proposes that new beings will emerge from existing artificial intelligence systems.

James Lovelock, chemist and environmental thinker, is best known for formulating the Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, which proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. Lovelock, who turns 100 on July, has now come up with a new theory about life on Earth — or its future. He argues that the anthropocene — the age in which humans acquired planetary-scale technologies — is coming to an end after 300 years. Lovelock describes the new age, which has already begun, as the “novacene”.

Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence proposes that new beings will emerge from existing artificial intelligence systems. They will think 10,000 times faster than we do and they will regard us as we now regard plants — as slow acting and thinking creatures. However, machines will not violently take over the planet as suggested in science fiction, because these beings will be as dependent on the health of the planet as humans are. As The Guardian writes in its review, “… for Lovelock, the Gaia hypothesis will save us, because the machines will realise that they need organic life to keep the planet at a habitable temperature. (Even electronic life could not survive on an Earth that veered into runaway global warming.) So, Lovelock argues, it will suit the robots to keep humans around.”

It is crucial, Lovelock argues, that the intelligence of Earth survives and prospers. He does not think there are intelligent aliens, so we are the only beings capable of understanding the cosmos.

The book is co-authored with journalist Bryan Appleyard.