The Cybernetic Society: How Humans and Machines Will Shape the Future Together

AI entrepreneur and evangelist Husain (Serious Machines: The Story of the Computers That Built the Modern World) states that his intention with this book is to encourage enthusiasm rather than apprehension about what he terms the cybernetic society. Accordingly, he lays out a case for a society formulated, developed, and sustained through the integration of human and machine decision-making systems and argues that this is already occurring. Since his two principal examples of the latter are the troubled cyber-city project Neom and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, it’s hard to see how human societies get from the present day to the peaceful, prosperous, cybernetically integrated future his book proposes. His discussions of distributed educational opportunities and community-based internet connectivity initiatives are more heartening. Though Husain acknowledges the ethical, political, and cultural complexities involved, he does not delve into these in any great depth.