HEARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines
How will machines know what we value if we don't know ourselves?
Billions of dollars are spent every year to track our actions, intentions, and sentiment online and via the sensors embedded in the world all around us. In a very literal sense, machine-learning algorithms may soon get to know us better than we know ourselves. While robots gaining consciousness is a growing concern, the future of human happiness is dependent on teaching machines what we value the most today. By taking a full measure of what makes us uniquely human, we can increase our wellbeing while defining the ethical programming that can evolve Artificial Intelligence in an authentic and purpose-driven way.
Featuring pragmatic solutions combining economics, emerging technology, and positive psychology, HEARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE provides a human-centric roadmap to help readers embrace their present to better define the future. Fictional narratives begin each chapter with a vivid portrait of how our lives might look in either dystopian vignettes of robot dominance or utopian scenarios of technologically enhanced human happiness. Written by John C. Havens, author of Hacking H(app)iness - Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World, Founder of The H(app)athon Project, and contributing writer for Mashable, The Guardian, and Slate, HEARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE will challenge you to more fully embrace your humanity and become happier in the process.
Coming From Tarcher/Penguin in 2016. Click Here to Receive a Review Copy.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR HEARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
"Coexisting safely and ethically with intelligent machines is the central challenge of the 21st Century. In the enjoyable Heartificial Intelligence, writer John Havens calls for resistance to the forces that erode our humanity in the age of the algorithm. Through detailed research, interviews, and engaging futuristic scenarios, Havens shows how establishing ethical standards for Artificial Intelligence will help us preserve the values we cherish most."
-James Barrat, author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
"John Havens' book Heartificial Intelligence is an excellent read! He explores a number of societal issues which AI and robotics are likely to soon bring to prominence. A great guide to issues of identity, meaning, deception, and reality when our technology advances to the next level."
-Steve Omohundro, President, President, Possibility Research and Leading AI Research Scientist
"With this exceptionally intelligent, playful, and brave book, John Havens shows us that we need to look the robot in the eye if we want to maintain our humanity. The most beautiful and yet most practical outlook on artificial intelligence you've ever read."
-Tim Leberecht, author of The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself
"Through pairing compelling fiction with contemporary research, Heartificial Intelligence encourages mindfulness in the age of the seemingly all-knowing algorithm."
-Ed Finn, Director, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
“Heartificial Intelligence by John Havens provides a balanced insight into the field of Artificial Intelligence and Ethics. Divided into two sections, the first demonstrates many of the challenges the industry is already facing concerning governance and ethics of advanced algorithms and data utilisation. The second section describes elements of a value based framework that would help match an individual's values with the algorithmic rules coded into the applications and automations they interact with. A thought provoking book, well researched which was impossible to put down once I started it. A must read for any practitioner of AI."
-Dr Andy Pardoe, Founder of Informed.AI
"John brings a uniquely human perspective to the quickly advancing world of artificial intelligence. He manages to ask critical questions while embracing the possibilities afforded by new technologies, avoiding sensationalism in favor of meaningful explorations of our relationship with AI."
-Ramona Pringle, Writer/Director, Avatar Secrets and Assistant Professor, Ryerson University
"Heartificial Intelligence shows how intimately wedded we are to technology and how the bond is just getting started. Providing an action plan around AI, John turns our dystopian fears into bright hope with wit, wisdom and love."
-Damon Brown, entrepreneur and author of Our Virtual Shadow: Why We Are Obsessed with Documenting Our Lives Online,
"Heartificial Intelligence is a powerful, passionate presentation of the fears and hopes of AI and robotics. It will challenge your existing beliefs and encourage you to act on them."
-Tom Guarrellio, Ph.D., Host, RoboPsych Podcast and Founding Faculty Member for SVA's Master's in Branding Program.
"As we come into realizing AI in different products, wearable devices, and selfdriving cars, we need to think in a critical way where this can bring us on an individual and societal level. Will it indeed help us forward, create more time for ourselves, or will it make our world more complex, less efficient? Heartificial Intelligence provides insights from various perspectives on how this AI world could or will develop. It is a great read to start thinking about the different implications for AI and whether these are positive or negative."
-Christel De Maeyer, Sleepingwithtechnology.com, Researcher at Artevelde University College, Belgium
“Heartificial Intelligence is an empowering resource with exclusive insights that allow us to discover a better understanding of why we do what we do to help us determine what's truly at stake in the fast-approaching age of artificial intelligence.”
-Josh Trent, Digital Health Coach, Host of the Wellness Force Radio Podcast & founder of wellnessforce.com.
Watch John's talk on HEARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Delivered at The Gratitude and Trust Summit in NYC (June, 2015)
