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384 pages, Audio CD
First published August 23, 2017
Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a bomb. Such is the mismatch between the power of our plaything and the immaturity of our conduct. Superintelligence is a challenge for which we are not ready now and will not be ready for a long time. We have little idea when the detonation will occur, though if we hold the device to our ear we can hear a faint ticking sound.The second passage, which has been one of my favorites since I was a teen, is from another exceptionally clear-sighted book, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle:
For a child with an undetonated bomb in its hands, a sensible thing to do would be to put it down gently, quickly back out of the room, and contact the nearest adult. Yet what we have here is not one child but many, each with access to an independent trigger mechanism. The chances that we will all find the sense to put down the dangerous stuff seem almost negligable. Some little idiot is bound to press the ignite button just to see what happens.
And I remembered The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before. The Fourteenth Book is entitled 'What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experiences of the Past Million Years?'________________________
It doesn't take long to read The Fourteenth Book. It consists of one word and a period.
This is it:
'Nothing.'