Contents

Sometime this century, machines will surpass human levels of intelligence and ability. This event—the “intelligence explosion”—will be the most important event in our history, and navigating it wisely will be the most important thing we can ever do.

Luminaries from Alan Turing and I. J. Good to Bill Joy and Stephen Hawking have warned us about this. Why do I think Hawking and company are right, and what can we do about it?

Facing the Intelligence Explosion is my attempt to answer these questions.

1. My Own Story
2. From Skepticism to Technical Rationality
3. Why Spock is Not Rational
4. The Laws of Thought
5. The Crazy Robot’s Rebellion
6. Not Built to Think About AI
7. Playing Taboo with “Intelligence”
8. Superstition in Retreat
9. Plenty of Room Above Us
10. Don’t Flinch Away
11. No God to Save Us
12. Value is Complex and Fragile
13. Intelligence Explosion
14. The AI Problem, with Solutions
15. Engineering Utopia