Life Engineering: Machine Intelligence and Quality of Life

✍ Scribed by Hubert Osterle

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 164
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Machine Intelligence is changing every aspect of our lives. Internet traffic and sensors in households, cars, and wearables provide data that oligopolistic companies collect and use to extract patterns of human behavior. Further, active digital assistants are taking over more and more of our everyday decisions. Humanity is on the verge of an evolutionary leap and it is time to determine if this development will benefit people’s wellbeing or will just mean the accumulation of capital and power with no regard for quality of life.

This book integrates the perspectives of various disciplines that are striving to establish resilient foundations – computer science, economics and social sciences, political science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, ethics and religion – in order to clarify a number of positions and, as a result, objectify the discussions. Written by Hubert Osterle, a researcher working at the interface of these disciplines, the book promotes debate on the future of man and machine, on happiness and evolution and on the major changes brought about by digital technology. Last but not least, it is a manifesto calling for a new – integrated – discipline to be founded: life engineering.

„If you want to think more deeply about what machine intelligence (aka AI) really means for humanity, you should read this book. Hubert Oesterle takes an amazingly broad and multi-disciplinary look at all relevant aspects, from the roots of human behavior to the impact advanced digital assistants might have on our daily lives (and who will control these assistants). Highly recommended!” Andreas Goeldi, Partner at btov Partners

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
1 Life with Machine Intelligence
Abstract
1.1 Utopia or Dystopia
1.2 Machine Intelligence for the Well-Being of Humanity
1.3 Evolution or Quality of Life
2 Life Assistance in the Year 2030
Abstract
2.1 Information, Communication, and Entertainment
2.2 Social Control
2.3 Consumption
2.4 The Home
2.5 Health
2.6 Mobility
2.7 Summary: Life Assistance for Consumers
3 Machine Intelligence in the Year 2030
Abstract
3.1 Digital Image of the World
3.1.1 Personal Data
3.1.2 Factual Data
3.2 Proactive Services
3.3 Integration
3.4 Performance
3.5 Man-Machine Collaboration
3.6 Artificial Intelligence
3.7 Summary: The Application World of the Consumer
4 Quality of Life
Abstract
4.1 Homeostasis
4.2 Needs
4.3 Feelings
4.4 Perceptions
4.5 Hedonia and Eudaimonia
4.6 Dynamics of Happiness
4.7 Predisposition or Conscious Behavior
4.8 Measurement of Happiness
4.9 Summary: Quality of Life Mechanisms
5 Evolution with Quality of Life
Abstract
5.1 Evolution Versus Happiness
5.1.1 Treadmill of Differentiation
5.1.2 Capitalism and Consumerism
5.1.3 Infomania
5.1.4 Complexity Overload
5.1.5 Irrational Emotion
5.1.6 Irrational Age
5.1.7 Renunciation of Privacy
5.1.8 Against Evolution
5.2 Happiness Versus Evolution
5.2.1 Nature
5.2.2 Health
5.2.3 Drugs
5.2.4 Electrical Brain Stimulation
5.2.5 Virtual Reality
5.2.6 Suicide
5.2.7 Religion
5.2.8 Psychology
5.2.9 Community
5.2.10 Safety and Security
5.2.11 Digital Happiness Coach
5.3 Summary: Paths to Quality of Life
6 Consequences for Individuals, Companies, and Society
Abstract
6.1 The Individual
6.1.1 Learning to Use Digital Services
6.1.2 Learning Quality of Life
6.1.3 Securing Autonomy
6.2 The Company
6.2.1 Digital Service Development Capabilities
6.2.2 From Provider to Consumer Paradigm
6.2.3 Access to Personal Data
6.2.4 Monetizing Hedonia
6.2.5 Monetizing Eudaimonia
6.2.6 Corporate Social Responsibility
6.2.7 Ecosystems and Monopolies
6.3 Society
6.3.1 Education
6.3.2 Infrastructure
6.3.3 Authentication
6.3.4 Common Personal Database
6.3.5 Data Protection or Renunciation of Privacy
6.3.6 Social and Economic Control
6.3.7 Consumer Protection
6.3.8 Further Tasks for the Economy and Society
6.3.9 Right and Duty to Influence
6.3.10 Implementation of Quality of Life Management
6.4 Summary: The Challenge of Evolution and Quality of Life
7 Life Engineering as a Discipline
Abstract
7.1 World Database
7.2 World Model
7.3 Quality of Life Model
7.4 Life Assistants
7.5 Happiness Management
7.6 Post- and Transhumanism
7.7 Preparing for Superintelligence
7.7.1 Illusion
7.7.2 Singleton
7.7.3 Singularity
7.8 Summary: Research Funding
8 Agenda for Life Engineering
Abstract
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References