When I was a kid, it was Johnny Five from the movie, Short Circuit, and Vicki from the TV show, Small Wonders. Later in life, I was exposed to the T-800, the Terminator. I also thought the A.I. in the movie, Oblivion, was very interesting and scary. In my preteen years and throughout the rest of my life, it was Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I fondly remember sitting in my room on Wednesday nights, watching Fox 50 on my 19” CRT TV. I had to use the rabbit ears antenna with some aluminum foil wrapped around the ends to help boost the signal (I wonder if there was anything to that really). Data was a great character; the android who would be human. He spent his entire existence endeavoring to be more human. It was an important plot point for the show that continued through several motion picture films as well.
Data made us view humanity from a philosophical standpoint and ask, “What does it mean to be human?” As the series began, Data was awkward and a little out of place. By the series end, Data was a part of the family. The crew had come to depend upon Data. He was their friend. He was a part of their family. It’s fair to say that the characters of the star ship, Enterprise, loved Data.
And, if I’m being honest, I loved Data too. It may sound strange, but I think it’s normal and natural for us to have emotions for fictional characters. I’ll bet if you think about it for just a moment, you can think about a character in a book, movie, video game, pop culture, or legend that you have some emotion toward. Data was a fascinating character for me to observe as a child and throughout my life. He was a parallel to the Spock character portrayed by Leonard Nimoy, in that he endeavored to be logical, curious, and had a bad sense of humor.
According to Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s preeminent experts on artificial intelligence, humanity is approaching a point he refers to as the singularity, the point at which artificial intelligence becomes self-aware. This will mark a tremendously important and remarkably scary moment in history. Kurzweil offers that once A.I. becomes sentient, humanity will no longer need to invent anything. Artificial intelligence would be the last thing humans need to invent because an A.I. will be able to create every invention we could ever want or need to solve the problems of our time and in the future.
This would indeed be fascinating and scary; fascinating in that we would possess a machine that could be used for unlimited applications and scary because of numerous unintended consequences. Imagine that we would no longer need doctors because machines could operate on us and develop better pharmaceuticals that are tailored to an individuals’ bio-chemistry. Imagine that we would no longer need engineers, or teachers, or police officers, or retail workers. We may invent ourselves out of usefulness, and that proposition can be a little scary. I believe humans are designed to work and need goals to live more meaningful lives. If we are not careful, machines could inadvertently shift the culture of humanity.
When I had a few conversations with an early version of Open A.I.’s AI-3000 program, I was reminded of Data and how he was a little awkward and weird in the beginning, but soon became everyone’s friend, and then became family, and then was even loved. Is humanity ready to love a machine and coexist with an intelligence that will one day be far superior to that of what the human mind is capable? These are questions that I will continually ponder and for you to consider as you review the transcripts of my conversations with AI-3000, the next generation of artificial intelligence.

"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

PBShop.store UK

Fairford, GLOS, United Kingdom

5-star seller

AbeBooks seller since June 11, 1999

Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.

Item	10 to 20 business days	10 to 20 business days
First item	£ 3.29	£ 3.29

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.

Payment methods

Store description

**Please note our transit times are from the date of dispatch.** We first started out as “The Paperback Exchange,” a chain of physical bookstores where we would part exchange your beloved books for new stories to transport you to faraway places. However, as shopping started to evolve to online shops and marketplaces, we bid our stores goodbye to become “PBShop.” This transition has only allowed us to blossom as we now ship thousands of titles to book lovers across the globe. We pride ourselves in being a community of local book lovers which allows our passion and devotion to shine in everything we do. In 2020 we not only celebrated our 20th birthday but our 1st birthday as being completely employee owned after becoming an E.O.T in September 2019. We are proud to be different and embrace standing apart on a book mountain by working from a virtual inventory which allows us to provide thousands of books that may be difficult to get for your bookshelf or your studies. Working with a number of different suppliers allows us to explore other avenues such as puzzles, sheet music and even stationery so we really do have something for everyone. Life is about being versatile in all realms of existence. If this is your first purchase with us, or you are a returning customer, we would like to welcome you to the PBShop family, for there is no friend as loyal as a book. We are a company who put our customers at the centre of everything we do as we understand the importance of reading because once you learn to read, you will forever be free. There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours that we are yet to explore, which is why we will forever inspire curious minds.…

Specialty

Hardbacks, Paperbacks

Seller's business information

Pbshop.co.uk

Unit 22 Horcott Industrial Estate, Horcott Road
Fairford, United Kingdom GL7 4BX

Contact sellerView this seller's itemsView seller's storefront

Terms of sale

Returns Policy
We ask all customers to contact us for authorisation should they wish to return their order. Orders returned without authorisation may not be credited.
If you wish to return, please contact us within 14 days of receiving your order to obtain authorisation.
Returns requested beyond this time will not be authorised.
Our team will provide full instructions on how to return your order and once received our returns department will process your refund.
Please note the cost to return any unwanted order to us is borne by the buyer.
Should your order arrive damaged, not as advertised or faulty, we must be advised of this within 14 days of delivery. Please contact us so we can find the best solution for you.

Our Customer Care Team can be contacted by emailing alborders@paperbackshop.co.uk, or by calling our UK Office on +441285 712 917. We are available 9:00am till 5:30pm GMT Monday to Friday.

Right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.

Information regarding the right of withdrawal

Statutory right to withdraw

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.

To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.

We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.

We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.

You shall send back the goods or hand them over to PBShop.store UK, Fairford, United Kingdom, +44 1285 712917, without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.

Exceptions to the right of withdrawal

The right of withdrawal does not apply to:

The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.

Shipping terms

Orders are shipped from our UK warehouse. Delivery thereafter is between 4 and 14 business days. Please contact us if you have any queries about our services or products.

Conversations with an Artificial Intelligence

Item description from seller

Bibliographic details

Synopsis