About this item
s using you to get what it wants.One of the most peculiar and possibly unique features of humans is the vast amount of information we carry outside our biological selves. But in our rush to build the infrastructure for the 20 quintillion bits we create every day, we've failed to ask exactly why we're expending ever-increasing amounts of energy, resources, and human effort to maintain all this data.Drawing on deep ideas and frontier thinking in evolutionary biology, computer science, information theory, and astrobiology, Caleb Scharf argues that information is, in a very real sense, alive. All the data we create - all of our emails, tweets, selfies, A.I.-generated text and funny cat videos - amounts to an aggregate lifeform. It has goals and needs. It can control our behavior and influence our well-being.
About the Author
Caleb Scharf is Director of Astrobiology at Columbia University in New York where he teaches and researches the questions surrounding the puzzle of life in the universe. His books include Gravity's Engines, The Copernicus Complex, The Zoomable Universe, and (coming in June 2021) The Ascent of Information. He is also author of more than 120 scientific papers, over 500 popular science articles, and a frequent consultant and speaker for TV and live audiences. Check out www.calebscharf.com
