DO ROBOTS MAKE LOVE?: FROM AI TO IMMORTALITY – UNDERSTANDING TRANSHUMANISM IN 12 QUESTIONS

In "Do Robots Make Love?: From AI to Immortality," Laurent Alexandre and Jean-Michel Besnier explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to change the human condition. The book is divided into 12 chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of AI, such as the potential for AI to surpass human intelligence, the possibility of creating artificial consciousness, and the ethical implications of using AI for military purposes.The authors argue that AI is a powerful technology that has the potential to both improve and threaten human existence. On the one hand, AI could be used to solve some of the world's most pressing problems, such as climate change and poverty. On the other hand, AI could also be used to create new forms of inequality and discrimination.The book is thought-provoking and raises essential questions about the future of humanity. However, it is also somewhat uneven. Some chapters are more engaging than others, and the authors sometimes make sweeping generalizations about AI that are not always supported by evidence.Overall, "Do Robots Make Love?" is an important book that provides a valuable overview of the potential of AI. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of humanity.

First of all, I am writing this review in the moment of the orange dotard and company. The world is back-sliding into fascism and I cannot wait for the AI to decide that is the wrong direction for human history.This book is not for everyone. It could be described as many things, but I will describe it as an introduction to possible futures. Humanity is, with all the technology at our disposal, not assured a future.If we want a future, we need to evolve life into something managed by wiser beings than we currently allow to manage the species and the planet. Technology offers one possible path into a future where we get the chance to explore off-planet, and where we get the chance to fix some of the damage our greed and hubris has done and is doing to the globe we rely on for our survival.If you are interested in ideas about possible futures, this short book is worth a gander. It does not definitively answer anything, but it will introduce most readers to ideas they probably have not yet explored.

This is an extremely interesting book with plenty of thought provoking questions and discussion. Written in the form of a dialogue between a philosopher (Jean-Michel Besnier) and a surgeon-urologist (Laurent Alexandre), "Do Robots Make Love" explores what technological advances might bring to humanity in the future--some of this is exciting, much of it is frightening, and all of it worth thinking about.This is a fairly short book (~140 pages) with each chapter tackling a question. There is also a list of recommended additional reading. The twelve questions are: Should the human race be improved, Will the human race have to change the way it reproduces, Can technology fix everything, Will we all be cyborgs tomorrow, Can you make love with a robot, Do we want to live to a thousand, Is transhumanism just another form of eugenics, Is artificial intelligence going to kill off mankind, What is at stake economically, Do we need to pass some laws, Have we anything to fear from a "brave new world", and How far should our research go?I found the first half of the book far more interesting than the second half as the focus became more on esoteric philosophical matters than what changes are possibly in store for humanity over the next 25-30 years. Overall, this is a really interesting book and worth a read and some thought.

There's much to enjoy here in this erudite, succinct and thought-provoking work. It's format may not be to everyone's liking- structured as a conversation between the two authors- but for me it works well here, and the subject, perhaps shaping up to be the issue of this century, namely trans-humanism and the nature of AI, is explored with insight as two differing views are talked through in an engaging way.

I was hoping that this 'debate' of 12 questions about transhumanism might help explain the idea to me. Nope. Unless you have some knowledge of transhumanism already, you may feel lost. Add into that mini essays on related topics tossed into the middle of the debate between Laurent Alexandre and Jean Michel Besnier that break up their conversations and I walked away annoyed and confused.Why these two men? Laurent Alexander is French urological surgeon who has given some "talks" on transhumanist topics. Jean Michel Besnier is a French philosopher and professor who studies the effects of technology on human life. Are they the best people to address these 12 basic questions about transhumanism?The book needed to start more basic and the mini essays needed to either start or begin the chapters not interrupt the flow of the debates that were open ended and offered no conclusions. The result is just more questions about transhumanism.

I'm not really sure if I liked "Do Robots Make Love?: Transhumanism in 12 questions" by Laurent Belando and Jean-Michel Besnier but I found the questions and answered presented to be intriguing and interesting. Transhumanism is a daunting subject matter but it is something worth learning more about. In this format, it was presented in a way that was mostly understandable for me although I admit that quite a bit went over my head.