San Antonio College Library

The boundaries between man and machine, between technology and nature, are becoming increasingly blurred and might even disappear completely in the future. Information technology, genetic engineering and nanotechnology are not only making considerable inroads into society, but also more and more directly into human nature. The day when Homo sapiens is able to consciously design and radically change himself is not far away. A far-reaching optimisation...

From chessbots to chatbots and from search algorithms to industrial assembly machines, humanity has arrived at the age of machine intelligence - or at least machine work, if we take seriously a definition of intelligence as "the abilities to learn from experience, adapt to new situations, understand and handle abstract concepts, and use knowledge to manipulate one's environment" (Encyclopedia Britannica). While some machines like IBM's Watson are...

Human history is at a turning point. Humankind's future is now being played out. The distance between people and machines has never been so close--in fact, doubts are being cast as to what defines being human. We are on the verge of a humanoid revolution. Could robots make us immortal? New robots with human faces are ever more efficient; they walk, see, hear, and speak. They look more and more like us and are nearly ready to enter our homes and lives....

Nick Bostrom, Oxford professor and founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute. Bostrom talkswith Reason science correspondent Ron Bailey to discuss his latest book, "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies," in which he discusses the risks humanity will face when artificial intelligence (AI) is created. A Reason TV production.

Who's in control... man or machine? A look at why the most powerful people in tech are stepping away from the products they’ve built.

For decades, world leaders, military generals and governments have dreamt of weaponising space. Now, modern technology is making these dreams possible. This film tells the stories of the boundary-pushing scientists and engineers who are taking our capacity to wage war out of this world. Discover the devastating impact that future space weapons could cause. Examine the nations and companies battling to establish a base on the moon. And learn how lasers...

Efforts to connect human brains to computers have taken big leaps forward in recent years. Melding our minds with machines could provide the biggest single upgrade to human intelligence since our species evolved. Are we ready?

When the sleeper wakes: A troubled insomniac in 1890s England falls suddenly into a sleep-like trance, from which he does not awake for over two hundred years. During his centuries of slumber, however, investments are made that make him the richest and most powerful man on Earth. But when he comes out of his trance he is horrified to discover that the money accumulated in his name is being used to maintain a hierarchal society in which most are poor,...