astronomy

The Age of Em

The Age of Em is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Age of Em rather than just read about it. In short: The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth is a 2016 nonfiction book by Robin Hanson. Summary The book explores the implications of a future world in which researchers have not created artificial general intelligence but have learned to copy humans onto computers, creating "ems," or emulated people, who quickly come to outnumber the real ones.

Key takeaways

The Age of Em belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Age of Em to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Age of Em from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth is a 2016 nonfiction book by Robin Hanson.

Summary The book explores the implications of a future world in which researchers have not created artificial general intelligence but have learned to copy humans onto computers, creating "ems," or emulated people, who quickly come to outnumber the real ones.

There have been three human eras so far, based on foraging, farming, and industry. The next era is likely to arise from artificial intelligence in the form of brain emulations, sometime in the next century or so. This book paints a detailed picture of this new era. The book's main scenario proposes that in about a hundred years from now, human brains will be scanned at "fine enough spatial and chemical resolution," and combined with rough models of signal-processing functions of brain cells, "to create a cell-by-cell dynamically executable model of the full brain in artificial hardware, a model whose signal input-output behavior is usefully close to that of the original brain."

Reception Seth Baum reviewed the book in Futures. He commended the book for bringing a social science perspective, for the detail it gives, and for providing a starting point for further study. He also criticized some of the book's arguments and stated that different authors would reach different conclusions about the same topic.

See also Mind uploading in fiction Mind uploading

References

External links http://ageofem.com/

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Age of Em

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Age of Em claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Age of Em before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Age of Em ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Age of Em

In research: The Age of Em appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Age of Em in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Age of Em is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2016 non-fiction books, Futures studies stubs, Futurology books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Age of Em outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Age of Em in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Age of Em means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Age of Em out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Age of Em in simple terms?

The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth is a 2016 nonfiction book by Robin Hanson. Summary The book explores the implications of a future world in which researchers have not created artificial general intelligence but have learned to copy humans onto computers, creating "ems,"…

Why does The Age of Em matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Age of Em?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Age of Em.