This book introduces a 'Big History' perspective to understand the acceleration of social, technological and economic trends towards a near-term singularity, marking a radical turning point in the evolution of our planet. It traces the emergence of accelerating innovation rates through global history and highlights major historical transformations throughout the evolution of life, humans, and civilization. The authors pursue an interdisciplinary approach, also drawing on concepts from physics and evolutionary biology, to offer potential models of the underlying mechanisms driving this acceleration, along with potential clues on how it might progress. The contributions gathered here are divided into five parts, the first of which studies historical mega-trends in relation to a variety of aspects including technology, population, energy, and information. The second part is dedicated to a variety of models that can help understand the potential mechanisms, and support extrapolation. In turn, the third part explores various potential future scenarios, along with the paths and decisions that are required. The fourth part presents philosophical perspectives on the potential deeper meaning and implications of the trend towards singularity, while the fifth and last part discusses the implications of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars from various disciplines interested in historical trends, technological change and evolutionary processes.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil, hailed by Bill Gates as “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence,” presents an “elaborate, smart, and persuasive” (The Boston Globe) view of the future course of human development. “Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.”—Los Angeles Times “Startling in scope and bravado.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “An important book.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near presents a radical and optimistic view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.

Cyberculture is a particularly complex issue. It is seen as a fantastic meeting point of classic philosophers with postmodern theorists, politicians with community engineers, contemporary sophists with software engineers, and artists with rhetoricians. Today, cyberculture is identified highly with new media and digital rhetoric and could be used to create a comprehensive map of modern culture. Present and Future Paradigms of Cyberculture in the 21st Century is a comprehensive research publication that explores the influence of the internet and internet culture on society as a whole. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as digital media, activism, and psychology, this book is ideal for academicians, researchers, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and students.

This book introduces readers to global brain singularity through a logical meditation on the temporal dynamics of the universal process. Global brain singularity is conceived of as a future metasystem of human civilization that represents a qualitatively higher coherence of order. To better understand the potential of this phenomenon, the book begins with an overview of universal history. The focus then shifts to the structure of human systems, and the notion that contemporary global civilization must mediate the emergence of a commons that will transform the future of politics, economics and psychosocial life in general. In this context the book presents our species as biocultural evolutionary agents attempting to create a novel and independent domain of technocultural evolution that affords us new levels of freedom. Lastly, the book underscores the internal depths of the present moment, structured by a division between subject and object. The nature of the interaction between subject and object would appear to govern the mechanics of a spiritual process that is key to understanding the meaning of singularity inclusive of observers. Given its scope, the book will appeal to readers interested in systems approaches to the emerging world society, especially historians, philosophers and social scientists.

Echoing the famous "The Limits to Growth" report from 1972, this edited volume analyses the changes that the World System has undergone to the present, on the fiftieth anniversary of the original report. During the past fifty years, both the concept and understanding of these limits have significantly changed. This book highlights that the evolution of the World System has approached a new critical milestone, moving into a fundamentally new phase of historical development, when the old economic and social technologies no longer work as efficiently as before or even begin to function counterproductively, which leads the World System into a systemic crisis. The book discusses the transition of human society to a new phase state, the shape of which has not yet been determined. New approaches are needed for both, for the analysis of the global situation, and for forecasts. The book is based on an integrated approach including the world-systems, historical and evolutionary perspectives, as well as a systematic view of society, in which changes in one subsystem cause transformations in others. Through mathematical modeling, it defines the main vectors of transformations of the World System; makes a detailed forecast of the development of all the main subsystems of the society and the World System, while presenting horizons of changes from short-term to ultra-long-term; and presents different development scenarios as well as recommendations on how to achieve a transition to the most favorable scenario. The book will appeal to members and followers of the Club of Rome, policy-makers, as well as to scholars from various disciplines interested in a better understanding of the World System evolution, global futures, development studies, climate change, and future societies.

- Braces readers for future knowledge. - Provides a handle on the power of learning mechanisms. - Assesses the progress made by using AI to better understand the mind.

This book develops insights of digitalization and the future of financial services to originate an innovative approach to financial field, in order to underpin research and practice in the wide area of digital finance. The aim of this book is to extend our understandings on how digitalization and the future of financial services can be helpful in different business circumstances in many cross-functional financial areas, such as financial markets, financial risk management, financial technologies, investment finance, etc. Thus, the book aims at addressing the relevance of digital finance for different players, highlighting differences in tools and processes as well as identifying innovative practices in financial digitalization. This can result in some novel theoretical and practical insights that can foster financial players, in order to proactively explore and exploit opportunities in financial digitalization and offset financial risks and increase efficiency.