Written by MIT professor, physicist, and machine-learning researcher Max Tegmark, “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence ” (2017) . This book captured my interest for its timeliness and importance in my generation. Increasingly, articles are written about artificial intelligence becoming better and soon might be able to achieve human goals and surpass them. ‘Life 3.0’ sounds like a sci-fi title, yet this ‘Life 3.0’ seems to be rushing at us, intruding on our reality, forcing us to confront the surge that is beginning to overtake us. We need to be prepared and equipped with knowledge, curiosity and willingness to engage with it. 

Before reading this book, my understanding was rudimentary. I knew that the mechanization of many steps in factories led to massive layoffs of skilled workers. The decreased need for manual skilled workers and the future path of focusing not on skills but understanding and higher level education is also a major change in our society. I was not aware of how our society planned to deal with this and what the dangers were. Many of the leading computer researchers consider the topic of artificial intelligence and machine learning as the most important topic of our time, as we enter the “Age of AI”. Our whole world will be affected by it, since you cannot stop progress, it has a life of its own. Tegmark aims to chart a more transparent and public course of AI, allowing the lay public to understand the pitfalls and changes that can happen with the advent of increasingly superintelligent machines. The interdisciplinary issues that must be addressed and what seems initially a pure computer programming problem, engulf philosophy, behavior and neuroscience, with implications for us all. This is an excellent book to understand the questions that arise with Life 3.0,  where both hardware and software are not predetermined, are complex and there is little room for error since the implications for danger are increased. Tegmark was able to weave the ideas of layers of complexity that were present throughout the book to end with his final task of developing guidelines to help navigate the increasingly complex layers in our world to work for the betterment rather than its destruction. Although this is not a classic, this is necessary for people of the 21th century to read and understand. Thus, I highly recommend this book.