I began writing this book in 2017, long before the arrival of ChatGPT. At that time it seemed a long way off before a smartphone would be able to have an intelligent conversation with you – and yet it has now happened.
Other things which I expected might be decades away are already coming true. The first humanoid robots have left their laboratories, and are making their first stumbling strides towards usefulness.
But this book is not an attempt to predict the future. It attempts to explore some of the issues that will shortly face humanity, as it learns to live with technologies which are smarter and better than it is.
The rate of progress at the moment is truly astonishing. In particular the arrival of ChatGPT4 promises to completely change our relationship with our technology. For the first time, our products will acquire the ability to think, to reason independently of their creators, in a singularity with far-reaching consequences.
Will mankind be able to transition to a new way of life, where much of the thinking and work he used to do is done by machines? Will this lead to a new equilibrium, or to disaster?
The jury is out on what the future holds for mankind. There is no particular ending which is inevitable. It is quite possible that a golden age of leisure awaits us – or perhaps not.
What is certain is that unprecedented levels of change await us. Thanks to large language models like ChatGPT, all sorts of things that we used to take for granted will be turned upside down. What awaits us at the end of all this remains unknown – but it is surely the most important question facing humanity.