Author(s): James Lovelock

Technology | Climate Change and Enviromental Politics

At 100-years-old, the originator of the Gaia theory welcomes the takeover of artificial intelligence, and offers a mischievous, wit-filled, and scientifically backed vision of a future epoch in which humans and AI together will help the Earth survive--no extraterrestrial influence necessary. Far from visions of green bodied extraterrestrials, the violent machine takeovers found in Sci Fi, and pods of the mega-wealthy fleeing to Mars, Wollaston Medal winner James Lovelock explores the Novacene--a new age in which beings will emerge from existing artificial intelligence systems. Leaving the Anthropocene--the age in which humans acquired planetary-scale technologies--behind, the Novacene introduces beings that will think 10,000 times faster than we do and they will regard us as we now regard plants. Still in need of planetary cooling systems to defend them from the sun, these hyperintelligent beings will be as dependent on the health of the planet as we are--making us partners in defending Gaia. Perhaps, he speculates, the Novacene could even be the beginning of a process that will finally lead to intelligence suffusing the entire cosmos. At the age of 100, James Lovelock has produced the most important and compelling work of his life.

Review: The hard science is explained with beautiful clarity, and a characteristic mischievous wit ... It is a bracing corrective -- Steven Poole * Guardian *
This restlessly thoughtful and forward-looking book ... is partly a defence of a lifetime's ideas, but mostly an argument about how AI is soon to overtake us - and what that means for our species -- James McConnachie * The Times *
Leavened with wit and optimism ... Novacene is the collected wisdom of an elder of our tribe which more than repays the short time it takes to read. -- Stephen Cave * Financial Times *
Novacene reads like undiluted Lovelock. From the start of his writing life - no matter how tortuous the narrative or complex the argument - Lovelock has written persuasively. ... if you want a sense of hyperintelligence in bipedal form, Novacene is a good place to start. -- Tim Radford * Nature *

Author Biography: James Lovelock, who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974, is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and the originator of the Gaia Hypothesis (now Gaia Theory). His many books on the subject include Gaia- A New Look at Life on Earth (1979), The Revenge of Gaia (2006), The Vanishing Face of Gaia (2009) and A Rough Ride to the Future (2014). In 2003 he was made a Companion of Honour and in 2005 Prospect magazine named him one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals, and in 2006 he received the Wollaston Medal, the highest Award of the UK Geological Society