About this item
An eminent political thinker uses our history with states and corporations -- "artificial agents" to which we have granted immense power -- to predict how AI will remake society.Much has been written about the arrival of artificial intelligence, but according to political philosopher David Runciman, we've been living with AI for 300 years -- because states and corporations are robots, too. In this mind-bending work, Runciman explains the modern world through the history of the "artificial agents" we created to rescue us from our all-too-human limitations. From the United States and the United Kingdom to the East India Company, Standard Oil, Facebook, and Alibaba, states and corporations have gradually, and then much more rapidly, taken over the planet.
About the Author
David Runciman teaches politics at Cambridge. He writes regularly about politics and current affairs for a wide range of publications including the London Review of Books. The author of several books, he also hosted the widely-acclaimed podcast Talking Politics, along with the series 'History of Ideas'. Past Present Future* is his new weekly podcast, where he is exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. *Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future.
