Social Machines and The New Future

Will your next doctor be a human, or a machine? Will you have a choice? If you do, what should you know before making it? Social Machines introduces the technically-engaged reader to two converging technologies: artificial intelligence in its modern incarnation and the growing trend of social networking to "reach off the Web" into the real world. Each of these is important in its own right, but when they come together, they will lead to an inflection point in our relationship with machines - to a partnership which can have profound impacts on the future of computing, but of the world in which we live.

Many people view the triumph of the computer Watson over the world’s best Jeopardy players in 2011 as the leading edge of a new age of smart machines. Since then, we have seen self-driving cars, smart search engines, and increasingly able robots moving from the realm of science fiction to deployed technology. As this occurs, we increasingly hear dystopian futurists bemoan a world where drones will replace pilots, computers will replace doctors, and scientists will be put out of work as intelligent computers increasingly replace the knowledge workers in modern society. They worry whether, as scientist Steven Hawking stated, "Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last."

In this book, AI expert and researcher James Hendler explores these artificial intelligence systems not just based on their social implications, but also explaining the technologies that make them possible. As the increasing power of machine learning is coupled with more and more data, we see potential areas where machines will, indeed, start to surpass humans in new and unusual ways. At the same time, when we explore the reality of these machines, we uncover the surprising fact that most of the smarts are still coming from humans - but not the humans who write the programs. Rather, the behaviors of large numbers of humans whether implicit, such as in what they are searching for on the Web, or explicit, as when they write articles for Wikipedia or share status on Facebook, is the fuel from which the machines derive their power.

The individual, whether human or machine, is no match for the power of the two combined. In fact, "social machines" which bring large numbers of humans and computers together may not be something to fear, but rather the last and best hope to solve the complex problems facing our world.

Social Machine: The Coming JoyfulCollision of Artificial Intelligence, Social Networking and Humanity is your field guide to the future of your own relationship with the machines--and the people like yourself connected with them--that are already changing your life.