Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Life 3.0 summary
Max Tegmark
Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
19 mins
What is Life 3.0 about?
Life 3.0 (2017) is a tour through the current questions, ideas and research involved in the emerging field of artificial intelligence. Author Max Tegmark provides us a glimpse into the future, sketching out the possible scenarios that might transpire on earth. Humans might fuse with machines; we might bend machines to our will or, terrifyingly, intelligent machines could take over.
Table of Contents
Life 3.0
summarized in 7 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 7
AI could represent the future of life, but it’s a controversial subject.
The story of how life emerged on earth is well known. Some 13.8 billion years ago, the Big Bang brought our universe into being. Then, about four billion years ago, atoms on earth arranged themselves in such a way that they could maintain and replicate themselves. Life had arisen.
As the author posits, life can be classified into three categories according to levels of sophistication.
The first stage of life, Life 1.0, is simply biological.
Consider a bacterium. Every aspect of its behavior is coded into its DNA. It's impossible for it to learn or change its behavior over its lifetime. The closest it comes to learning or improvement is evolution, but that takes many generations.
The second stage is cultural, Life 2.0.
Humans are included here. Just like the bacterium, our “hardware” or bodies have evolved. But unlike simpler life-forms, we can acquire new knowledge during our lifetimes. Take learning a language. We can adapt and redesign ideas that we might call our “software.” And we make decisions using this knowledge.
The final stage is the theoretical Life 3.0, a form of technological life capable of designing both its hardware and software. Although such life doesn’t yet exist on earth, the emergence of non-biological intelligence in the form of AI technologies may soon change this.
Those who hold opinions about AI can be classified by how they feel about the emerging field’s effect on humanity.
First up are the digital utopians. They believe that artificial life is a natural and desirable next step in evolution.
Second, there are the techno-skeptics. As the name suggests, they don’t believe that artificial life will have an impact anytime soon.
Finally, there’s the beneficial AI movement. These people aren’t sold on the idea that AI will necessarily bring benefits to humans. They therefore advocate that AI research be specifically directed toward possible universally positive outcomes.
Want to see all full key ideas from Life 3.0?
Key ideas in Life 3.0
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Best quote from Life 3.0
One of the most spectacular developments during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang is that dumb and lifeless matter has turned intelligent.
—Max Tegmark
Who should read Life 3.0?
- Artificial intelligence enthusiasts and physicists
- Future gazers and philosophers
- Nerds, geeks and science fiction fans
Categories with Life 3.0
Books like Life 3.0
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked
Start growing with Blinkist now
26 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers