The Age of Em: Robin Hanson on Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth

The Age of Em by Robin Hanson is the best worst book I have read in a very long while. It is the best because Robin has a very effective, efficient and eloquent writing style and a personality to match it. Thus he is able to say utterly horrendous things – like “the 3rd Reich will be a democracy by now” or “Humanity will starve,” while keeping a smile and remaining the very likable fellow that he is. It is the worst because The Age of Em is an efficiency utopia: a place where democracy is inefficient [sic]; one person one vote doesn’t work [does it ever?], ems live to work and not the other way around [so that, unlike now, we can get enough work out of them], and humanity has either starved to extinction or has become a tool of our tools. The Age of Em is a book which has entirely forgotten that technology [or economics for that matter] is only a how but it isn’t and it shouldn’t be a why or a what. That technology is not what we seek but how we seek. And that technology, while necessary, is not enough. And so, the Age of Em is a book where efficiency and effectiveness reign supreme at the expense of all else. In short, after reading the final version of the book, my opinion has not changed much since our previous conversation I had with Hanson. Though, somehow and paradoxically, I like Robin personally more than last time and really enjoyed having a conversation with him. And the fact that he was happy to send me the final book to review and discuss speaks volumes about the kind of open-minded person and academic that he is. [He also told me he felt I was holding back during the interview – which I did, and so I hope he forgives me that I am not doing that in this preamble to to our conversation ;-] And that is all very commendable indeed. But unfortunately it doesn’t make for a good or insightful book. What it does make for is a good conversation about a future scenario I believe is dangerous and I hope is as far from reality as Robin estimated himself – i.e. 1 in 1,000. You can see the full video interview here: https://www.singularityweblog.com/age-of-em/