The God Test - by Robert Wright (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Wright comes a sweeping new view of artificial intelligence--as an evolutionary force that will pose deep political and spiritual challenges and could, in the process, give our species a unifying sense of purpose.

The God Test is the first book to capture the power behind the AI revolution--to clearly explain the breakthroughs that sparked the current wave of advance and compellingly show why this wave will grow in magnitude and meaning. Written by one of our foremost public intellectuals, and informed by his decades of chronicling the digital age, the book argues that we are about to witness the most abruptly dramatic social transformation in the history of our species.

Wright says that to truly understand this moment in technological history, we need to expand our perspective beyond the last century or even the whole history of technology and look back across billions of years of life on Earth. The advance of AI, he argues, is driven by evolutionary dynamics like those that led to intelligent life in the first place. And understanding those dynamics can empower us to confront our climactic challenge: Can we muster the political, moral, and even spiritual resources needed to guide this technology wisely?

If we fail, the consequences for the whole planet could be grave. But if we meet the challenge--if we pass "the God test"--we can live in a world where humanity thrives, finding not just happiness but deeper meaning and purpose. The very machines that might otherwise imperil or oppress us can enrich us, helping us transcend the psychological impediments to human concord and fulfillment.

Review Quotes

"Genuinely illuminating...Those willing to sit with a hard question, argued with rigor and unusual intellectual honesty, will find this the most important book Wright has written."
--Washington Independent Review of Books

"Wright is a highly engaging writer with a wry wit, and The God Test is a pleasure to read."
--Airmail

"Wright has the uncanny ability and eloquence to give us the big picture." --Undark

Praise for Why Buddhism is True

"A sublime achievement."
--Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

"Provocative, informative and... deeply rewarding.... I found myself not just agreeing [with] but applauding the author."
--The New York Times Book Review

"This is exactly the book that so many of us are looking for. Writing with his characteristic wit, brilliance, and tenderhearted skepticism, Robert Wright tells us everything we need to know about the science, practice, and power of Buddhism."
--Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet

"A fantastically rational introduction to meditation.... It constantly made me smile a little, and occasionally chuckle.... A wry, self-deprecating, and brutally empirical guide to the avoidance of suffering."
--Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine

About the Author

Robert Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of The Evolution of God (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Nonzero, The Moral Animal, Three Scientists and their Gods (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Why Buddhism Is True. He is the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the widely respected Bloggingheads.tv and MeaningofLife.tv. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Time, Slate, and The New Republic. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University, where he also created the popular online course "Buddhism and Modern Psychology." He is currently Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York.