12 Bytes

12 Bytes

How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love

Summary

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A 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK IN THE GUARDIAN, FINANCIAL TIMES AND EVENING STANDARD

Twelve bytes. Twelve eye-opening, mind-expanding, funny and provocative essays on the implications of artificial intelligence for the way we live and the way we love
- from Sunday Times-bestselling author Jeanette Winterson.

In this original, deeply researched and lively new book, Jeanette Winterson traces the history of the AI revolution. She talks to some of the boldest and most imaginative thinkers in the field and looks to religion, myth and literature to help us understand the radical changes to the way we live and love that are just around the corner.

When we create non-human life-forms, will we do so in our image? Or will we accept the once-in-a-species opportunity to remake ourselves in their image?

What do love, caring and attachment look like with a non-biological life form? And what happens to the gender binary?

What will happen when our destiny is not contained by physical bodies, and our destination is not planet Earth?

With wit, compassion and curiosity, Winterson tackles AI's most urgent talking points, and asks readers to consider their role in imagining a more just and equal future.

"What makes this audiobook essential listening is not just its content (a mix of enthusiasm and castigation), but the electricity of Winterson's narration." - Times, Audiobook of the Week

© Jeanette Winterson 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

  • Thought provoking and necessary
    Guardian

About the author

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. She published her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, at twenty-five. Over two decades later she revisited that material in her internationally bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Winterson has written thirteen novels for adults and two previous collections of short stories, as well as children's books, non-fiction and screenplays. She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester. She lives in the Cotswolds in a wood and in Spitalfields, London.
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