The best non-fiction books on technology to read now

If you want to improve your understanding of technology, then read these great tech books curated by the team at Viewired. Our tech book reviews will have you wanting more!

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Max Tegmark’s landmark book, Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, explores the methodology behind today’s AI systems and the impact that artificial intelligence could have on humanity in the long run.

While Alexa is a long way from taking over the world, we’re already starting to rely on AI systems to sift through job applications, interpret large quantities of data, drive our cars, and decide what news we do and don’t hear every day – and this is just the start. Tegmark offers a mix of possible outcomes, both good and bad, for our development of AI and gives a stark warning to those thinking there’s no work to be done in terms of safeguarding our future against the latter.

How To Do Nothing: Resisting The Attention Economy

Jenny Odell’s book is not about relaxation or mindfulness, so much as the necessity of disengaging from the distracting world of endless news feeds and scrolling social media to re-engage more consciously with the world around you.

How To Do Nothing reads as much as a guide to naturalism as it does activism, moving seamlessly from the grand aims of tech libertarianism to the refusals of hermits and naturalists and even performance artists questioning the appearance of business we so often find ourselves investing in. The total is a complex picture of how our political, technological and environmental landscapes combine – making this one book you shouldn’t scroll past.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

If you have an ear to the ground for bestselling books on technology, you’ll likely have heard of Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Acting as a sequel or sibling to Sapiens – a chronicle of human civilization up to the present day – Homo Deus charts human evolution to paint a likely picture of the future and is well worth looking for any budding futurists.

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