The Handover

How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs

By: David Runciman

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Hardcover | 7 September 2023

At a Glance

Hardcover
336 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.6 x 16.2 x 3.2

Hardcover

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Does it matter if we are ceding power to AI? Especially if we have been there before.

'The Singularity' is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before.

A few hundred years ago, humans started building the robots that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful artificial entities, with capacities that go far beyond what any individual can do, and which, unlike us, need never die.

They have made us richer, safer and healthier than would have seemed possible even a few generations ago - and they may yet destroy us. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.

About the Author

David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the former Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies. His previous books for Profile include Confronting Leviathan, Where Power Stops and How Democracy Ends. He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books and hosted the widely acclaimed weekly podcast Talking Politics.

Industry Reviews

'Praise for David Runciman: 'A clear and forceful writer' - Financial Times

'Runciman's flair for turning a pithy and pungent phrase is one of the things to admire about his writing ... That and [his] cogency, subtlety and style' - Observer

'Refreshingly free of received and rehearsed wisdoms, Runciman doesn't tiptoe around sacred cows and invites us to take part in that most adult way of thinking: to examine contradictory ideas in tandem and ponder what the dissonance amounts to' - Australian

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