Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence

I'm a fan of James Lovelock. To me he is one of the most under celebrated scientist and inventors in modern day history. There is a lot to say about his life. He proposed the Gaia hypothesis, the theory that earth functions as a self-regulating system as well as various research into nuclear energy, global warming and space travel. He definitely left a mark on science and lived a relatively active life until his 103rd birthday. Novacene turned out to be his last book.

Novacene builds further on the Gaia hypothesis while expanding on the scope of global warming. Lovelock looks forward to the age where the human brain gets overtaken by the cleverness of the new universe it created, computers. This triggers the end of "Anthropocene"- the era in which humans became able to make large-scale alterations to the planetary environment - and the beginning of the Novacene.

The book shares a really interesting view over the future. In many ways I find it remarkable that this book was written before Chat-GPT as so many of it is increasingly becoming more relevant.

Novacene is a must read!