Are you afraid of Robots or AI?

Do you know how the latest technological advances in gene editing, social media, artificial intelligence and robotics are changing our lives and societies, when we are more obsessed about immortality, divinity and bliss. The technology will give us the capacity to edit and direct our lives and our futures.

Nigel Shadbolt, a computer science professor at the University of Oxford and co-founder of the Open Data Institute , a Lonodn based non-profit group setup by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to encourage the safe sharing of public data sets, and Roger Hampson, a prominent implementor of technological change in public sector, reveals in their latest book Digital Ape how to think through the true significance of our latest technological developments.

Despite all the technological advances we remain ape-ish species as we share 96 per cent of our genes with our nearest relative Chimpanzee, as our basic instinct remain primitive. We still require augmented wisdom to make sensible choices about how far we modify our bodies and minds.

Between 1890 and 1950 we advanced from a world of rifles, horses and the Morse telegraph   into one of the atomic bombs, jet aircraft and television.

“the digital age has created a new virtual universe that is still expanding by the power of 10” according to the authors.

The smart-machine revolution is changing our lives and societies and dispels any misconception.

We are using tools to control our private lives, employment, politics and understand how technology is impacting our world and embrace the wonderful opportunities to achieve our collective future well-being.

We still have to understand the structure and organising principles of this new universe to confront the challenges and complexities. In 1991, there was only one website at the European Organisation for Nuclear research (cern) in Switzerland. By 2014, it grew to over 1bn websites across the globe made possible by World Wide Web that Berners-Lee has created. Then Facebook comes along and enables mass connectivity with 700bn active users spanning the globe, as 2.5 trillion internet searches are made every year, with the explosion of computer power.

According to authors our ability to pool and share our collective knowledge could lead to total enlightenment.

Our obsession with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram has turned us all into “part-time labrats or pavlovian dogs which salivate at the sound of a ping.

The Digital Ape: How to Live (in Peace) with Smart Machines by Nigel Shadbolt and Roger Hampson Scribe £20, 352 pages.