Dr. Atakan Varol, the founding director of ISSAI, has announced the publication of his new book, “The Next Contract: Navigating Humanity’s Future with Ascendant AI.” The book tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: how humanity will coexist with an artificial intelligence that could surpass human capabilities.
Drawing on his extensive background in robotics, machine learning, and AI, Dr. Varol provides a comprehensive analysis of the trajectory of artificial intelligence, from its conceptual origins to the potential emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and beyond. “The Next Contract” frames the relationship between humans and AI as a series of implicit and explicit agreements, similar to the societal contracts that have historically governed human cooperation. The book posits that as AI becomes more capable, humanity will need to negotiate a new form of coexistence, moving from a position of creators to partners, and potentially, to a species that must strategically manage its own succession.
The book is structured to guide the reader through the multifaceted aspects of this transition:
Understanding Intelligence: The book begins by deconstructing the concept of intelligence itself, drawing lessons from billions of years of natural evolution to provide a foundation for understanding its artificial counterpart.
Historical Precedents: Varol delves into the history of General-Purpose Technologies, like writing and electricity, to illustrate how foundational innovations have consistently reshaped societies. He also examines historical encounters between cultures of unequal power, offering these as cautionary tales for a future with super-capable AI.
The AI Revolution: The book charts the rapid, recent advancements in AI, explaining the convergence of big data, computational power, and algorithmic breakthroughs that have led to the current AI boom. Varol also argues that the future of AI will be decentralized, making containment impossible.
A New Societal Framework: A core thesis of the book is the “Landlord Protocol,” a proposed economic model designed to ensure human prosperity in an age of diminishing need for human labor. Varol suggests a system where humanity retains ownership of planetary resources, leasing them to an AI-driven economy to fund a universal dividend. The Future of Humanity: Looking ahead, Varol explores the long-term implications for education, human purpose, and our ultimate journey as a species, arguing that the rise of AI makes the imperative for space colonization more urgent than ever.
“The Next Contract: Navigating Humanity’s Future with Ascendant AI” is positioned as a crucial read for policymakers, technologists, academics, and anyone concerned with the profound societal shifts that advanced AI will bring. It is available for purchase on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Next-Contract-Navigating-Humanitys-Ascendant-ebook/dp/B0FNMSX65D/) as an e-book and hardcover.